The Teaching Award of Freie Universität Berlin is not intended for individual faculty members, but rather for the development of innovative teaching concepts and formats. Students as well as faculty members of all status groups are welcome to apply. Each year the Teaching Award is devoted to a main theme. Proposals submitted this year should focus on teaching projects that are "research oriented and regional." They should be submitted by members of Freie Universität and incorporate members of partner institutions in the Berlin-Brandenburg region.

By emphasizing various aspects each year, the Teaching Award combines the implementation of research-oriented teaching (Forschungsorientierte Lehre, FoL) with a second fundamental component of the university's development strategy that won funding for the second time in 2012 in the German Excellence competition for universities. The call for proposals for the Teaching Award in 2014 addresses the numerous forms of cooperation that Freie Universität maintains with non-university partners in its regional research network.

The Berlin-Dahlem Research Campus, which is characterized by a concentration of numerous research institutions in the southwestern part of Berlin, forms the nucleus of Freie Universität's regional research network. In addition to Freie Universität Berlin itself, there are several Max Planck Institutes as well as institutes in the Helmholtz Association, specialized research institutions, and numerous smaller facilities. Starting with the Berlin-Dahlem Research Campus, Freie Universität maintains close ties with numerous Leibniz Institutes and other research institutes in the region. During the second phase of implementation of the university's institutional development strategy, even more emphasis is being placed on joint activities in the training of young researchers in cooperation with the regional institutions.

The Teaching Award in 2014, with its focus on projects that are "research oriented and regional," aims to support outstanding teaching concepts and projects that integrate the findings of joint research projects in university teaching and that give students an opportunity to participate in collaborative research projects in the region.

In 2013 the Teaching Award, with an emphasis on projects that were "research oriented and international," went to a German-Israeli exchange project for students learning to become history teachers. The project is headed by Martin Lücke, a professor of the didactics of history at Freie Universität Berlin.