You can use the following questions to help you formulate your proposal:

• Which need or challenge in the cross-sectional field of sustainability does my idea focus on and what does this mean for the FU climate emergency declaration or the FU sustainability mission statement?
• Why is my project idea necessary?
• What are key findings from my exploration phase and what solution(s) or recommendation(s) did I develop?
• What positive change do I want to create?
• What methods or approaches do I use to explore the problem?
• What would happen if we did not undertake my project?
• Who is concernced with the topic our project is trying to address, and what are their approaches to solving it?
• How innovative is my idea compared to existing approaches?
• How appropriate and feasible is my idea?
• Roughly outlined, what is my project timeline within a year?
• What exactly do I want to achieve?
• What measures do I want to implement?
• Who, from a current perspective, would be important for a successful implementation (e.g. professors, departments, administration)?
• Does my proposal offer opportunities for collaboration?
• How can I tell if my project goal has been achieved?
• How appropriate and feasible is my idea really?
• How can my idea be further developed and have a lasting impact?
• How will my idea inspire lasting or long-term change and activity at Freie Universität Berlin?
• Are there options to allow the idea to grow after the official funding phase?
• Is my idea based on input from different people with different profiles?

Note: You are also welcome to use the readiness check for your idea development.

The Unit for Sustainability & Energy is available to answer your questions.

In addition, we offer seminars and workshops on various topics that provide basic to in-depth knowledge. Information on seminars and workshops can be found here.

The following criteria will result in exclusion from evaluation and will not be assessed.

Applications will be dismissed if they:

• do not meet the formal criteria (e.g., the person submitting the application is not a member of Freie Universität Berlin, or documents such as the budget/cost estimate are missing);
• are submitted after the deadline;
• do not provide a sufficient or plausible description;
• do not meet the funding goals (e.g., your idea already exists);
• to finance own salaries;
• No start-ups will be funded. However, it is possible to submit or implement ideas that subsequently lead to a business start-up. For this purpose, interested parties can contact the offices of Profund Innovation at Freie Universität, which is dedicated to supporting startups. For further information, please visit www.profund.fu-berlin.de.

Funding can be allocated to individual applicants as well as teams. You can collaborate across divisions/departments or institutions.

It is important that you specify one person as the primary contact, applicant for your proposal, and is responsible for the project implementation. Please provide the names, job titles/status group, institutional and/or departmental affiliation, and contact details of your team members, too.

When thinking about the scope of your idea, you should consider the kind of skills and knowledge, as well as the amount of effort that will be required in order to plan and implement it. With regard to feasibility, make sure that your idea has the potential to produce results that can be applied to other areas of our university and, perhaps, beyond it.