Within the framework of the Cultural Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Italian Republic and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) publishes the Italy-Germany 2026-2028 call for proposals for the funding of joint projects, with the aim of facilitating the access of Italian researchers to large German infrastructures and research centres, which offer advanced scientific facilities and instrumentation not available in Italy (e.g.: European XFEL, FAIR-GSI, DFKI, MPI-IPP, EMBL etc.).

The project proposal must be drawn up jointly by the Italian and German scientific managers, and submitted exclusively by the Italian Principal Investigator (PI) through the MAECI portal by selecting the 'Major Projects' option, no later than 17:00 CEST on Monday, June 30, 2025.

The P.I. may only submit one project proposal and must upload a signed Letter of Commitment, which can be downloaded from the call for proposals page. This letter must be signed by the legal representative (or delegate) of the German host institution and must indicate the amount and type of co-financing that the host institution is willing to provide.

Funding

The maximum funding available for each project on the Italian side is 400,000.00 euros per year, including compulsory co-funding of at least 50% of the total budget by the Italian P.I’s institution (co-funding may include the cost of the university staff formally employed in the project - person-hours).

Pre-selection

As provided for in Article 3.2 of the call for proposals, only in the event of pre-selection of the project by MAECI will it be necessary to produce a letter of endorsement signed by the legal representative (Rector). In this case, the P.I. must send the following documentation to the Scientific Cooperation and Networks Unit (cooperazionepvs@uniroma1.it):

1. copy of the pre-selected project
2.  letter of Commitment from the German partner submitted at the application stage;
3. receipt of the application generated by the system at the application stage;
4. letter of indemnity from the Department Director, countersigned by the Chief departmental administrative officer (RAD), confirming the Department's willingness to cover the co-financing costs and all other charges deriving from the possible financing (the facsimile is available in the attachments section of this page)
5.  letter of endorsement (to be signed by the Rector).

The call for proposals and supplementary rules are available here.

For any queries regarding the call for proposals, please email progetti.germania@esteri.it.

For information on Sapienza's internal procedures, please email cooperazionepvs@uniroma1.it.