• Date 2022-12-22

The new Funding for Research and Teaching on Health in the World of Work (FoGA) guidelines provide for support to be given to research projects, young researchers’ groups at universities and non-university research institutions, and endowed professorships.

The aims of the FoGA programme are

• to strengthen the effectiveness of research into health in the future world of work,
• to generate scientific findings and significant knowledge about health in the world of work,
• to secure a robust evidence base for good policymaking,
• to build up and develop sustainable research structures, in particular by supporting talented, young researchers, and
• to highlight the topic’s significance for other important fields - such as occupational diseases, mobile working, and occupational safety and health in small enterprises.

The funding covers five fields of activity:

• "Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic to improve the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention in future"
• "Prevention in the workplace - further developing occupational physicians' practice"
• "Preventive career transition management taking account of various groups’ vulnerabilities and the diversity of the working population"
• "Flexibilisation of the world of work - exploiting opportunities, avoiding risks"
• "Keeping pace with change - further developing academic methodologies"

The intention is that the projects, young researchers' groups, and professorships funded should be focussed on primary, secondary, or tertiary prevention, help ensure Germany has the work-related research expertise it needs in the five fields of activity, both today and in the future, and strengthen the academic system sustainably in this area. Projects and young researchers’ groups are usually funded for three years and endowed professorships for five years.

The legal basis for the FoGA programme consists of the funding guidelines published by the BMAS in October 2022 and a series of calls for funding bids. The current call for bids will see support provided as of the second half of 2023 for projects, young researchers’ groups, and professorships that contribute to two fields of activity - "Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic to improve the integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention in future" and "Prevention in the workplace - further developing occupational physicians' practice".

Expressions of interest can be submitted under the current call for bids until 31 January 2023.