DFG Projects at IN-EAST

The German Research Foundation (DFG) also provides a significant amount of funding for the research at IN-EAST. It is currently supporting and funding the “Risk and East Asia” Research Training Group and a number of research projects under the different DFG grants programmes.

Research Training Group 1613 – Risk and East Asia

The DFG Research Training Group 1613 “Risk and East Asia” was positively evaluated by the DFG review panel and the funding period extended for another four and a half years up to 2018. The report concluded that the training group, which is firmly rooted in the social sciences and economics, “… distinguishes […] itself favorably from the common mainly philological approaches, in particular with regard to research on China.” Extension of the research training group was therefore expected to bring with it further important impetus for area studies in Germany, the report said.

The research programme is built on strong international collaboration. One of its key innovations is the “mobile training” concept with East Asia. In it, intensive courses on research methods and fieldwork were organised at Renmin University in Beijing and at the University of Tokyo to prepare the doctoral candidates for their own research projects in the region. Numerous international scholars regularly take up invitations from the Research Training Group and contribute through workshops and lectures to education and training of the young researchers at IN-EAST. The first cohorts of doctoral fellows have successfully completed their projects. (Funding period: 2014–2018)