Third-Party Funded Research and Service
This is an overview of third-party funded research at the Faculty of Arts as well as offers from the third-party funding service.
Third-Party Funded Research at the Faculty of Arts
The four Roman legionary bases in Bonn, Neuss, Xanten and Nijmegen still hold treasures of knowledge about the multifaceted life of the Romans on the Lower Rhine. Deciphering these and preserving them for the next generation of researchers is the aim of the project conducted at the University of Bonn in cooperation with the universities in Nijmegen and Munich. Thanks to modern geophysical prospection methods and new remote sensing possibilities, the legionary camps can be understood as the centers of a densely covered and intensively used surrounding area. In addition, new scientific methods allow insights into the dietary habits, health and mobility of the inhabitants.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jan Bemmann
Duration: 2022 until approximately 2040
Dialect Atlas of Central West Germany
The aim of the DMW project is to document and secure the dialects and the most non-standard forms of speech (varieties) in the area covered by the survey and to make them available on maps for researchers and the interested public. Given the rapid decline of Low German (Plattdeutsch) and other non-standard varieties in the area covered by the DMW project, time is of the essence. Therefore, both an older generation (generally 70 years and older) and a younger generation (approx. 30 to 45 years) will be surveyed in order to record the linguistic change by comparing the generations.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wich-Reif
Duration: 2016-2032
Text database and dictionary of Classic Mayan
The aim of the project is to document research on the most important script in pre-Hispanic America to make the hieroglyphic texts accessible in a database and, based on this, to compile a dictionary of the Classical Maya language. The Maya script was used in the period between 300 BC and 1500 AD and comprises hundreds of words and syllable characters that have only been partially deciphered. In cooperation with the Göttingen State and University Library and the Bonn University and State Library, a long-term archive of the inscriptions will be created and made available for independent research.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Nikolai Grube
Duration: 2014 until approximately 2028
The German Inscriptions of the Middle Ages
The academy project records, annotates and edits the surviving inscriptions of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia from the years 500 to 1650 AD. It focuses on cities with outstanding inscription collections, which are linked to other collections of the overall project “The German Inscriptions” via thematic bridges such as “Episcopal Cities”, “Monastic Landscapes”, “Patrician Urbanity and Imperial Cities”, “University Cities” and “Hanseatic Cities”. The inscriptional tradition in NRW is diverse: for example, donor and memorial inscriptions allow conclusions to be drawn about the level of education of the clergy and the upper middle classes. In addition to preparing the edition volumes, the research center is available to cultural institutions as a point of contact for epigraphic questions.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Andrea Stieldorf
Duration: 1978 until approximately 2030
Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS)
The BCDSS investigates profound social dependencies such as slavery, serfdom, debt bondage, and other forms of permanent dependency across epochs, regions and cultures. Its focus lies "beyond slavery and freedom", i.e. we aim to overcome the binary opposition of "free" and "unfree". Instead, we propose the new key concept of "asymmetrical dependency" to explore all forms of bondages across time and space.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Stephan Conermann
The Centre of Gravity Project (COGY), Prof. Dr. Dennis Lehmkuhl, ERC Consolidator Grant
The goal of the Centre of Gravity project is to close the gap in the understanding of the developments within Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity between 1955 and 1975. In these years, researchers like Sir Roger Penrose, Stephen Hawking, Sir Hermann Bondi, Jürgen Ehlers and John Wheeler revolutionized the mathematical tools and physical concepts within the theory. Their work made the observation of both gravitational waves and black holes possible.
Duration: 6/2023 - 5/2028
Heisenberg Professorship for Romance Literary and Cultural Studies
Prof. Dr. Claudia Jacobi
Funded by: DFG
Duration: Since 2022
Heisenberg Professorship for Classical Archaeology
Prof. Dr. Stefan Feuser
Funded by: DFG
Duration: Since 2022
Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Artificial Intelligence
Prof. Dr. Aimee van Wynsberghe
Funded by: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Duration: Since 2021
Dr. Tristan Spillmann
The private letter in Gregory the Great's registrum epistularum. Form, function and formatting of a church-political instrument of power
Funded by: DFG, Walter Benjamin Fellowship
Duration: 2024-2026
Prof. Dr. Karoline Noack
Balancing the Centre and the Local: Mobilization and Production Strategies of the Inca State and Early Colonial State in Cochabamba, Bolivia
Funding body: DFG, Individual Research Grant
Duration: 2024-2027
Precision Farming. Cooperative Methods of Virtual Fencing
Sub-project of the CRC 1187 Media of Cooperation
The project investigates sensor-based co-operative media and data practices of precision agriculture and closed-loop sensing for the containment of animals. In doing so, it makes a praxeological contribution to the media, technological and agricultural history of border practices, in addition to the empirical analysis of their implementation.
Speaker: University of Siegen
Sub-project leader at the University of Bonn: Prof. Dr. Kathrin Friedrich
Funded by: DFG
Duration: 2024-2027
4D-Imaging. From Image Theory to Image Practice
Sub-project of the DFG priority program “The Digital Image”
The “4D Imaging” project investigates technologies that relate image, space and movement to each other in new ways. 4D technologies capture, process and transmit information about physical space and make it predictable in real time. 4D images are becoming particularly important in aesthetic and operational contexts in which they reconceptualize various forms of human-computer interaction.
Sub-project leader: Prof. Dr. Kathrin Friedrich
Funded by: DFG
Duration: 2023-2026
Prof. Dr. Sabine N. Meyer
The “Indian Lid”. Negotiating Legal Uncertainties of Citizenship, Territory, and Jurisdiction in Minnesota under the Allotment Policy (1905-1916)
Funded by: DFG, Individual Research Grant
Duration: 2022-2025
The rise of populist and authoritarian governments across the globe has led to a dramatic increase in a particular form of forced migration, the flight of human rights defenders (HRD) into exile. These activists and their organisations are the foundation not only of resistance to repressive rule but also of more democratic societies in the future. Supporting two postdoctoral scholarships for researchers, this research will explore the role of universities in providing formal and informal support to HRDs in exile, with a particular focus on exiled Russian activists at Charles University, Czech Republic, and exiled activists from Myanmar hosted by Mahidol University and partner universities in Thailand.
Speaker at the University of Bonn: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Rosario Figari-Layus (together with Prof. Paul Gready, University of York)
Funded by: Gerda Henkel Stiftung
Duration: 24 months, grant application approved in November 2024
Connecting Late Antiquities is an ambitious project using new digital methods to transform our understanding of social relationships at the end of the ancient world. Instead of focusing on the social and political elite the project sheds light on the less privileged. Previous projects that sought to catalogue late-antique people omitted these sub-elites. Furthermore, they separated the 'secular' sphere of government from the 'religious' sphere of the Church, thereby exacerbating a notion of them as distinct realms whose contacts sometimes led to tension and conflict. Such an approach runs the risk of imposing modern distinctions on a much more fluid and interconnected world.
Speaker at the University of Bonn: Prof. Dr. Julia Hillner
Funded by: DFG, Arts and Humanities Research Council
Duration: 2023-2025
How is Artificial Intelligence Changing Science? Research in the Era of Learning Algorithms
The transdisciplinary research group investigates how different disciplines use AI as a tool and as an epistemic entity within larger (post)digital infrastructures. We observe how heterogeneous concepts and operations of the social sciences and humanities on one hand, and the natural and technical sciences on the other, are integrated into AI applications. The investigation explores how AI interacts with the established practices and methods of the sciences, whether they are complemented, modified, and/or potentially replaced.
Speaker at the University of Bonn: Prof. Dr. Jens Schröter
Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation
Duration: 2022-2026
The project seeks to understand, in a comprehensive manner, the meaning that four Amazonian indigenous peoples give to cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, taking into consideration their knowledge, expressions, and traditions, inherent to their identity and their vision of the world. Its revaluation is crucial for the survival and strengthening of their culture.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Carla Jaimes Betancourt
Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation
Duration: 2022-2025
Rhine Ruhr Center for Science Communication Research (RRC)
The RRC reorganises science communication research and develops innovative communication formats. To do so, the RRC focuses on findings from the interdisciplinary field of Science Studies as well as the development of new perspectives to communicate the Social Sciences and Humanities. The central aim is to enable both specialist audiences and a broader public to evaluate facts and research results in a reflective manner and to convey a nuanced picture of science.
Speaker University of Bonn: Prof. Dr. David Kaldewey
Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation
Duration: 2021-2026
NRW Cluster of Excellence for Certified AI
In order to enable sustainable digitalization, the joint project Certified AI is developing quality standards for the trustworthy application of AI and a certification process for the expert verification of (technical) assured properties. The holistic approach of the project, which combines expertise from computer science, economics, law and philosophy, ensures the social acceptance, feasibility and marketability of the testing methodology that is to be developed. At the same time, a special focus on the North Rhine-Westphalian economy will strengthen the local economy in the long term by giving companies the opportunity to actively help shape corresponding standards and develop new business models.
Philosophy sub-project: Prof. Dr. Markus Gabriel
Funded by: State of NRW
Duration: 2021-2025
Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences (BoCAS)
BoCAS is a collaborative research and teaching facility bridging laboratory and field work. Its facilities are intended to serve as a hub for collaboration across the university connecting all archaeological disciplines, the humanities and sciences forging links between the Faculty of Arts, the Faculties of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Medicine, and Agriculture. Moreover, BoCAS joins forces with museums, other research institutions and universities in the Rhine region and beyond, as well as local stakeholders and research institutions on a national and international level.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Jan Bemmann, Prof. Dr. Martin Bentz, Prof. Dr. Nikolai Grube
Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation
Duration: 2020-2026
Emmy Noether Group SPINS: Sorting and Peer Processes at School
School administrators and teachers are faced with the task of strengthening social interaction and cohesion in increasingly diverse schools. SPINS investigates how smart class divisions can help with this - based on online surveys with our partner schools. SPINS shares practical findings with the partner schools and provides school-specific recommendations.
Group leader: Dr. Hanno Kruse
Funded by: DFG
Duration: 2022-2028
Center for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 50: Financial Sector and Inequality
Social inequality is a widespread problem that has long preoccupied scientists, politicians and society and will continue to do so. In this context, financial market developments also play a central role. The Center for Advanced Studies “Financial Sector and Inequality” aims to show how and through which channels the financial sector itself has had a reinforcing or reducing effect on inequality since the 19th century. It will also address how financial markets are shaped by long-term trends in inequality and at the same time influence them themselves.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Carsten Burhop, Prof. Dr. Christian Bayer (Faculty of Law and Political Science)
Funded by: DFG
Duration: 4 years, approval in July 2024
The research group is looking at the remains of two cities located in present-day Mongolia that were built from scratch by the heirs of Genghis Khan. They embody the dramatic change from a natural pastoral economy to an urban landscape: Karakorum - the capital of the Mongol Empire - and Khar Khul Khaany Balgas. The group aims to investigate the two urban complexes and their influence on the surrounding regions from a diachronic perspective. The focus will be on urban “metabolism” with topics such as energy supply, food production and building materials.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jan Bemmann
Funded by: DFG
Duration: 4 years, approval in July 2023
Since 2017, the Research Training Group explores the constitutive dimensions of the concept of 'contemporary literature' with regard to the relationship between ‘the contemporary’ or ‘the present'
and 'literature' in historical, theoretical and praxeological perspectives. Instead of presupposing the terms 'present' and 'contemporary literature', the premises of their production are investigated. Three cohorts of 12 to 18 doctoral students and one postdoctoral researcher per funding phase are trained at the research training group. In addition, numerous academics from many different disciplines are closely involved in the research and study program.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Prof. Dr. Kerstin Stüssel
Funded by: DFG
Duration: Since 2017
Franco-German Research Training Group “Mass and Integration in Ancient Societies"
The Research Training Group systematically relates “mass” as a historical phenomenon to the contept of integration for the first time. The term “mass” is intended to refer to a numerically large group of people who come together only temporarily and disorderly. The term “integration”, on the other hand, refers to (un)conscious processes of order that are necessary for the formation of permanent social structures.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Konrad Vössing
Funded by: Franco-German University
Trinational Research Training Group “Founding Myths of Europe in Literature, Art and Music"
The Universities of Bonn, Paris (Sorbonne) and Florence have agreed on a joint structured doctoral program entitled "Founding Myths of Europe in Literature, Art and Music". The subjects involved are those of the Faculties of Arts, in particular literature and linguistics, art history and musicology, as well as subjects related to the framework of the research group, such as historiography, political science, philosophy, sociology, etc. Over a period of three years, the doctoral students will write a dissertation in the field of European founding myths.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Thomas A. Schmitz
Funded by: Franco-German University (since 2019)
Duration: Since 2008
Are you planning to apply for third-party funding?
Formal Application Procedure at the Faculty
Please inform the dean's office that you are planning to apply for third-party funding so that formal and capacity-related questions can be coordinated in good time and the official channels can be adhered to (Section 71 (3) HG). Your point of contact is the Department for Research and International Affairs.
Central Research Funding
Department 7 “Research and Transfer” offers a comprehensive range of advice for your grant application as well as project management services.
Research Data Service Center
The Research Data Service Center supports you in planning your research data management during the application process and beyond.
Bonn Center for Digital Humanities
The BCDH advises and supports you in the application and development of digital methods and tools.