HRZZ German–Croatian Bilateral Projects (IPDE-2026-12): €60,000–€200,000 for the Croatian Half of a Weave Project Judged by the DFG, Closing 31 December 2026

HRZZ German–Croatian Bilateral Projects (IPDE-2026-12): €60,000–€200,000 for the Croatian Half of a Weave Project Judged by the DFG, Closing 31 December 2026

Most bilateral research calls make you write two proposals, submit them to two agencies, and wait while two separate panels reach two possibly incompatible conclusions. The Weave instrument was built to stop that. Under Weave, a joint German–Croatian project is written once, submitted once to a single Lead Agency, and evaluated once. For call IPDE-2026-12, the Lead Agency is the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), and the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) acts as the partner agency that pays for the Croatian research group.

That structure has one consequence worth understanding before you read anything else on this page: HRZZ does not review the science. HRZZ checks that the Croatian applicant is eligible, then waits for the DFG’s verdict. Funding is recommended only for proposals the DFG ranks within the top 20% of the respective competition. Your project is not competing against other Croatian applicants. It is competing inside the German system, on German review standards, against German-led proposals.

The Croatian submission deadline is 31 December 2026 at 17:00 CET, through the EPP electronic submission system. The call opened on 19 February 2026.

Key details

What the call actually funds

IPDE-2026-12 supports basic research — work aimed at generating new knowledge and improving existing knowledge in a field, with the goal of better understanding the research subject. HRZZ is explicit that the proposed research topic must be internationally recognised and/or nationally relevant, and that the principal investigator must demonstrate excellent previous scientific achievements. This is not a seed-funding or capacity-building scheme dressed up as research funding; the stated aim is to build a critical mass of Croatian research groups that are competitive internationally.

The call is open to all scientific fields. There is no thematic priority list to write towards, which is unusual and genuinely liberating — but it also means the proposal has to justify its own importance rather than pointing to a policy document.

HRZZ’s stated objectives give you the framing the agency responds to: generating knowledge that ultimately strengthens the Croatian economy and societal well-being; networking between recognised research groups on internationally or nationally relevant topics; supporting groups that can compete internationally; supporting scientists who can mentor a new generation of early-career researchers; and developing Croatian scientific and research potential. The mentoring point is not decoration — it appears again in the principal investigator eligibility criteria as a hard requirement.

The two halves of the project must be closely linked and complementary, and the scientific contribution of each side must be clearly defined, visible, and transparent. A joint proposal that reads as two parallel workplans stapled together is the single most common structural failure in bilateral schemes, and Weave reviewers are trained to look for it.

How Weave changes the application

The mechanics are worth spelling out because they trip up first-time applicants:

1. The German principal investigator, working with the Croatian principal investigator and the Croatian research group, prepares a single joint project proposal following the DFG’s standard rules and instructions for Weave proposals, and submits it to the DFG.
2. The Croatian applicant organisation — the legal entity employing the Croatian principal investigator — simultaneously submits the Croatian part of the proposal to HRZZ, and in any case no later than seven days after submission to the Lead Agency.
3. HRZZ performs an administrative eligibility check only.
4. The DFG conducts the scientific evaluation.
5. The DFG informs HRZZ of the review outcome and whether the proposal falls within the top 20% of the respective DFG competition.

Two practical implications follow. First, the German partner controls the submission timing, and your seven-day window at HRZZ starts when they press submit — you cannot submit to HRZZ first and catch up later. Second, the joint proposal must satisfy DFG formatting and content rules, not HRZZ ones. The Croatian documents wrap around a DFG-shaped core.

The call text does not state a DFG-side deadline; it states the HRZZ deadline. Applicants should confirm the applicable DFG submission arrangements for Weave proposals directly with the DFG and with their German partner before planning backwards from 31 December 2026.

Who can apply

Eligible applicant organisations are Croatian higher education institutions, public or private research institutes, and other research-oriented institutions employing at least five PhD holders under employment contracts exceeding one year. The application is submitted by the organisation, not by the researcher personally.

The principal investigator is the final beneficiary of the funding and the head of the Croatian research group. HRZZ requires that this person:

• is responsible for the scientific research and the overall management of the project;
• is an active researcher — holding a PhD, with project management experience, an established and active research group, and relevant publications and/or patents in the research field;
• has internationally recognised research results and proven successful mentoring of early-career researchers;
• is employed on a permanent basis at an eligible applicant organisation.

There is one carve-out: a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) may serve as principal investigator even without permanent employment.

A principal investigator may participate in only one project proposal per call, and must have the formal support of the applicant organisation. Separately, a bilateral project with the same research group may be submitted only once per year and to only one funding agency — you cannot run the same collaboration through the German Weave route and a second bilateral scheme in parallel. Researchers who are merely planned to be employed on the project do not count as members of the research group.

The active-projects rule that quietly disqualifies people

This is the eligibility clause most likely to end an application before the science is read, and it is worth quoting carefully.

At the time of application, the principal investigator may hold an active role in a maximum of two HRZZ-funded projects — either as principal investigator of one and a collaborator or co-principal investigator on another, or as a collaborator or co-principal investigator on two. Consequently, HRZZ states, an eligible applicant may hold only one active role at the time of application. Projects ending on 30 September 2026 are not considered active.

For this call, co-principal investigators are defined as heads of Croatian research groups in the bilateral programmes (IPCH, IPS, IPCZ), MAPS, and ERA-Net programmes.

Check your own HRZZ commitments against this rule in writing, with your research office, before you commit your German partner to a joint proposal. The 30 September 2026 cut-off is a real escape hatch for anyone whose current grant is winding down, but only if the end date matches exactly.

What the money covers

HRZZ will fund EUR 60,000 to EUR 200,000 for the Croatian part of the project, over a duration of up to three years. The requested funding must be evenly distributed over all project years — a front-loaded budget with a large equipment purchase in year one is not compatible with this rule, and it is a constraint you should design the workplan around rather than discover during budget drafting.

Eligible cost categories, with the ceilings HRZZ applies:

• Research costs — the general working budget of the Croatian group.
• Equipment and equipment maintenance costs — up to EUR 59,999.
• Dissemination, training, and collaboration costs — up to EUR 15,000.
• Open access publication costs — up to EUR 15,000.
• Indirect costs — up to 15% of the total requested funding, provided they are directly related to project activities, cannot be assigned to another cost category, and are adequately justified and specified.

Note that at the EUR 60,000 floor, the equipment ceiling is effectively irrelevant and the three capped categories could consume most of the grant; at the EUR 200,000 ceiling, equipment can absorb close to 30% of the award. Decide early which end of the range your project sits at, because the shape of the budget follows from it.

The financial plan submitted to HRZZ must cover exclusively the costs to be funded by HRZZ. German costs belong in the DFG budget inside the joint proposal. A grant agreement is concluded with the beneficiary within three months of the funding decision.

The application package

Everything submitted to HRZZ must be in English, and the applicant organisation — not HRZZ — is responsible for ensuring the Croatian part is consistent with the joint proposal submitted to the DFG. HRZZ explicitly disclaims responsibility for discrepancies between the two, which means an inconsistency you introduce while editing one document and not the other is entirely your risk.

The Croatian submission consists of:

1. Administrative Form — with handwritten signatures of the principal investigator and the legal representative of the applicant organisation, plus the official stamp.
2. DFG Application Form with the joint research plan description.
3. Work Plan — results, objectives, timelines, and collaborators, covering the Croatian research group only.
4. Financial Plan — requested funding linked to objectives and activities, Croatian research group only.
5. Research Data Management Plan — describing data storage, handling, and use of data after the project ends.
6. Organisation Support Form — up to two pages detailing institutional support, signed and stamped.
7. Signed Letters of Intent for every collaborator in the Croatian research group who is not employed by the project-hosting organisation. For collaborators based in Croatia, the letter must be signed by both the head of the organisation employing them and the collaborator. For collaborators based abroad, the collaborator’s signature alone is sufficient.

Submission is exclusively electronic, via the Electronic Project Proposal Submission System (EPP) at https://epp.hrzz.hr/. HRZZ runs an administrative eligibility check and will issue a request for clarification or supplementation on incomplete applications; proposals that still fail the requirements after supplementation, or that miss the deadline, do not proceed.

HRZZ directs applicants to the document Guidelines for Applicants for Weave Calls where the Croatian Science Foundation acts as a Partner Organisation in 2026, available on hrzz.hr. Read it alongside the call text — it carries the detailed instructions on application content that the call itself only summarises.

Preparing a proposal that survives a DFG panel

Because the DFG does the reviewing, the standard you are writing to is the DFG’s. A few things follow.

Let the German partner drive the document. They know the DFG’s expectations for structure, length, and the level of methodological detail. Your job is to make the Croatian contribution unmistakable inside their document, not to impose a Croatian template on it.

Make the Croatian contribution necessary, not additive. The strongest signal in a bilateral review is that neither side could do the work alone — a technique, a dataset, a field site, a cohort, an instrument, or a body of expertise that exists on one side and not the other. If a reviewer can imagine the German group completing the project without you, the collaboration reads as a funding convenience.

Budget honestly against the even-distribution rule. Reviewers notice budgets that are reverse-engineered to hit a ceiling. Three roughly equal annual tranches that map onto named workpackages are more persuasive than a round number.

Take the data management plan seriously. It is a separate required document, and HRZZ asks specifically about storage, handling, and post-project use. Generic text here is a wasted opportunity to look like a group that manages research properly.

Build in the mentoring evidence. Both the objectives and the principal investigator criteria reference mentoring early-career researchers. If your group has placed doctoral students and postdocs successfully, that record belongs where a reviewer will see it.

Common mistakes

• Missing the seven-day window. The Croatian part must reach HRZZ no later than seven days after the German partner submits to the DFG. Agree the submission date with your partner in advance and have the signed forms ready before it.
• Chasing signatures too late. The Administrative Form needs handwritten signatures and a stamp; the Organisation Support Form needs signing and stamping; every external collaborator needs a Letter of Intent, and Croatian-based collaborators need two signatures each. None of this can be compressed into the final week.
• Letting the two documents drift apart. Edits made to the joint proposal after the Croatian work plan is drafted are the usual source of inconsistency. Freeze both at the same time.
• Ignoring the active-role limit. Confirm your HRZZ project commitments formally, and check whether an ending project falls on the 30 September 2026 cut-off.
• Submitting the same collaboration twice. One bilateral project per research group per year, to one agency only.
• Putting German costs in the HRZZ financial plan. The two budgets are strictly separate.

Frequently asked questions

Does HRZZ evaluate my science at all? No. HRZZ performs an administrative eligibility check. The DFG conducts the evaluation and tells HRZZ whether the proposal falls in the top 20% of its competition.

What happens if the DFG reviews the project well but not in the top 20%? The call recommends funding only for proposals ranked within the top 20% of the respective DFG competition. A positive review below that threshold does not trigger a Croatian funding recommendation.

Can an early-career researcher lead the Croatian side? The criteria describe an established investigator: a PhD, project management experience, an existing active research group, internationally recognised results, and a record of mentoring early-career researchers. That set of requirements points away from a first independent grant.

Can I apply if I am not permanently employed? Only if you are a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Otherwise permanent employment at an eligible applicant organisation is required.

In what language do I write? All documentation submitted to HRZZ must be in English.

Is there a fixed DFG deadline I should work backwards from? The HRZZ call text specifies the Croatian deadline of 31 December 2026 at 17:00 CET and does not state a DFG-side deadline. Confirm the DFG’s Weave submission arrangements with your German partner and with the DFG directly.

When would the project start? The indicative project start date is late 2026 / early 2027, and the grant agreement is concluded within three months of the funding decision.

Official links and next steps

• HRZZ open calls page (call listing and call text PDF): https://hrzz.hr/en/project-application/open-calls/
• Electronic Project Proposal Submission System (EPP): https://epp.hrzz.hr/
• HRZZ international cooperation programmes, including Weave: https://hrzz.hr/programi/medunarodna-suradnja/
• Enquiries about this call: [email protected] — HRZZ states that all enquiries must be submitted exclusively by email to this address.

If you already have a German collaborator, the immediate next step is a joint decision on when they will submit to the DFG, because that date sets your own seven-day clock and everything else schedules backwards from it. If you do not yet have one, note that the German principal investigator leads the joint submission — finding and convincing that partner is the long pole, and four months before a 31 December deadline is not generous for a collaboration built from scratch. In that case, treat this cycle as reconnaissance: read the DFG’s Weave instructions, identify the groups whose work genuinely complements yours, and be ready when the next Croatian Weave call opens.