WIHO FUNDING LINE

• A New Research Group Format within the WiHo Funding Landscape

• KIWIT as one of two multi-site collaborative projects

• Postdoctoral junior research groups as part of the funding scheme

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In spring 2024, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMFTR) published a new funding line entitled “Research Groups and Junior Research Groups in Science and Higher Education Research (WiHo)”. The aim of this program is to enable the development of innovative research approaches over an extended period of time and to strengthen the overall landscape of research in science and higher education studies. Concept proposals were expected not only to demonstrate a sociological orientation but also to incorporate perspectives from political science and economics, thereby emphasizing an explicitly interdisciplinary profile.

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A Sustainable Approach Instead of Short-Term Third-Party Funding Orientation

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The application team for the KIWIT Research Group contributed an information-science-oriented perspective through a proposal concept focused on the system-specific impacts of artificial intelligence. According to the federal call for proposals, the funding line seeks to “make the structures within WiHo—which are shaped by a dominant and rather short-term orientation toward third-party funding—more sustainable, thereby contributing to a successful and future-oriented science policy.”

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Accordingly, project outlines were submitted both for postdoctoral junior research groups and—this being the format of KIWIT—for multi-site collaborative research groups. The call specifies: “In research groups organized as consortia, larger research questions and thematic complexes are to be investigated across institutions at at least two applicant organizations and a minimum of three participating institutes or departments, under the leadership of experienced professors, over a total funding period of up to eight years (…). Interdisciplinary research groups are given priority.”

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Strong Response to the Call for Proposals

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The funding initiative met with considerable interest. Following the submission of project outlines, four applicants for junior research groups and two applicants for interdisciplinary, multi-site research groups were invited to submit full proposals—among them KIWIT. Ultimately, the application was successful: in March 2025, the applicant team from Oldenburg, Bielefeld, and Hamburg received approval to establish the research group initially until 2029, with the prospect of subsequent continued funding. Within the framework of the funding line, the research group is connected to the other funded institutions and will actively contribute to networking activities with a focus on artificial intelligence.

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Further Information

• BMFTR funding priority: WiHo

• BMFTR announcement of the funding line dated 29 April 2024

• Decision on preselection with invitation to submit a full proposal

• Press release, University of Oldenburg

• Press release, Bielefeld University

• Press release, Northern Business School Hamburg

• Review: 28 July 2025

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