Restructured financing of the operating and expedition costs to be introduced when the FS METEOR is commissioned in 2026 / New DFG Infrastructure Priority Programme for marine research
How do sea ice and ocean currents develop in a changing climate? What are the geological processes that shape the edges of the continental shelves? What does life in the deep sea look like? In order to pursue these and other questions of basic marine research, seven German research vessels take hundreds of researchers to the world’s oceans every year. Based on intense consultations with the German federal states and the participating research institutions that operate such vessels, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) have now developed a sustainable concept for financing the operating and expedition costs incurred by German research vessels. The new financing model is due to come into force in mid-2026.
The background to this new financing structure is that the BMBF is currently building a new research vessel for use in the Atlantic, namely the FS METEOR. It is scheduled to enter service in mid-2026 to replace the old FS METEOR and will be operated by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The BMBF and the state of Schleswig-Holstein are to increase their funding for the operation of the FS METEOR. Primarily used in the Atlantic, the FS MARIA S. MERIAN and FS METEOR have been jointly financed by the DFG and the BMBF to date. Under the new model, the operating costs of the FS MARIA S. MERIAN are to be financed exclusively by the DFG in future through its central research vessel funding programme.
In connection with the new model, the DFG Senate has also approved the establishment of the new Infrastructure Priority Programme (SPP) “Research Vessels”. The SPP will initially receive up to €21.6 million in funding for the first three years. By reorganising the funding of operating costs, the DFG will be able to offer standardised expedition and analysis funding for the seven German research vessels in the future. In addition to the FS MARIA S. MERIAN and METEOR, these include the FS SONNE, which is deployed in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the polar research icebreaker POLARSTERN, and the FS HEINCKE, FS ALKOR and FS ELISABETH MANN BORGESE, which are deployed in the shelf seas of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. In future, researchers will be able to plan their projects on the world’s oceans more flexibly, exchanging ship times between the various ships, for instance, as well as having the option of organising their expedition and analysis costs more flexibly and independently of the ship being deployed. In addition, it will be made easier for universities to conduct ship expeditions.
“The vessels serve a large number of research communities, especially in the natural and life sciences: they act as an indispensable platform for addressing a wide range of research questions relating to the oceans and their marginal seas,” said DFG Secretary General Dr. Heide Ahrens. “All in all, this restructuring will significantly improve the situation for the research communities that use the ships,” Ahrens added.
Under the newly established Infrastructure Priority Programme, researchers can apply for funding for projects in all fields of science requiring offshore research. The proposal for the establishment of the transregional programme was submitted by paleoclimatologist Professor Dr. Oliver Friedrich of the University of Heidelberg, biologist Professor Dr. Nicole Aberle-Malzahn of the University of Hamburg, sea ice physicist Dr. Stefanie Arndt of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, geophysicist Professor Dr. Christian Berndt of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel and biodiversity researcher Dr. Saskia Brix of Senckenberg am Meer, German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research in Hamburg.
As Federal Minister of Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger stated: “With this substantial funding, we are creating a forward-looking basis for marine, coastal and polar research. There can be no doubt that the oceans are not only a vital space in economical and biological terms but are also crucial from the perspective of climate and biodiversity. Research can provide answers on how we can protect the oceans and use them sustainably. The renewal and modernisation of the research vessel fleet is a key building block in terms of securing Germany’s leading role in marine research.”
A few more steps need to be taken before the new operating and financing model can be launched in summer 2026 – in particular, separate resolutions have to be passed by the participating federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg, as well as the Helmholtz Association and also the University of Hamburg, where the German Research Fleet Coordination Centre is located. The latter is responsible for coordinating the deployment of the FS METEOR, FS MARIA S. MERIAN and FS SONNE, and this will continue to be the case in the future.
Proposals for expeditions will continue to be submitted via the DFG’s elan system and scientifically reviewed by the DFG and BMBF’s joint “Review Panel German Research Vessels (GPF)”.