Martin Roth-Initiative Temporary Relocation to Germany 2026: A Scholarship of Up to 15 Months, With Monthly Stipend, Insurance, and Psychosocial Support, for Artists and Cultural Actors at Risk Hosted by a German Cultural Organisation

Martin Roth-Initiative Temporary Relocation to Germany 2026: A Scholarship of Up to 15 Months, With Monthly Stipend, Insurance, and Psychosocial Support, for Artists and Cultural Actors at Risk Hosted by a German Cultural Organisation

The Martin Roth-Initiative (MRI) does something unusual among arts funders: it pays for an artist to be somewhere else. Not for a project, not for a book or an exhibition, but for a period of safety long enough — up to fifteen months — that a person under threat can keep working instead of disappearing from their field entirely.

The current call for Programme Line 1, which funds protective stays hosted by cultural organisations inside Germany, opened on 6 July 2026 and closes for digital submissions at 5:00 pm CEST on 11 September 2026. There is a second, later deadline that trips up unprepared applicants every round: the host organisation’s signed and stamped hardcopy must be postmarked by 25 September 2026, or the application is not considered complete.

This guide walks through what the scholarship actually covers, the two-sided application structure that makes MRI different from almost every other residency, the eligibility rules that disqualify people quietly, and how to build a credible application in the weeks remaining.

Key Details

What the Scholarship Actually Provides

MRI publishes what the funding includes, but not a euro figure for the monthly stipend. That is worth stating plainly rather than guessing at: the stipend amount is not disclosed on the official application page. Host organisations discuss the figure with MRI during the application process, and the scholarship contract is concluded with the artist upon arrival in Germany, in accordance with MRI’s scholarship guidelines. If the exact number matters to your planning — and it should — ask MRI directly through the contact address before you submit.

What is confirmed is the shape of the package:

• A monthly scholarship. Paid out by the host organisation, which receives the funds under a funding agreement with MRI.
• Financial resources for the artistic and cultural work itself. This is not a bare living stipend; the programme explicitly funds the continuation of the work.
• Individual support for the scholarship holder. MRI names necessary insurance, psychosocial support, language courses, trainings, and networking activities.
• Funding for additional personnel at the host organisation. Hosting an at-risk artist properly is labour, and MRI pays for some of it. The limit is specific: MRI cannot fund permanent staff, nor freelance work unrelated to the purpose of the grant.
• Counselling and further training, including on safety, sensitive public relations, and psychosocial support — for the host organisation as much as the artist.
• Networking and exchange of experience with other host organisations and scholarship holders.
• Support in the visa process. With an important limit spelled out on the official page: the scholarship visa does not automatically entitle the holder to take up employment or self-employment in Germany.

The programme also states, twice and in different ways, what it is not. MRI is not an emergency programme. It cannot provide immediate support or accelerate application or visa processes. There is no legal entitlement to a grant, and selection depends on available budget funds. Anyone facing an acute, days-away threat needs a rapid-response mechanism, not this one — though MRI’s separate Fast-Track funding is referenced in its exclusion rules and may be worth asking about.

Who Is Eligible — and the Rules That Quietly Disqualify

MRI requires that all access criteria be met. Partial fit is not fit. The criteria for artists and cultural actors are:

1. Committed through their artistic work to an open society, freedom, peace and democracy, and rejecting any kind of discrimination.
2. Experiencing restrictions on their freedom or threats from state and/or non-state actors, because of their work or other circumstances.
3. Currently in one of three situations: still active in their country of origin; only recently departed (specifically, after 20 February 2026, the deadline of MRI’s previous call); or not safe in their current location.
4. Without access to a safe abode — for example, they do not hold a dual citizenship or permanent residency via a national or humanitarian visa that would give them somewhere safe to go.
5. Speaking English or German.
6. Demonstrably artistically or culturally active, with work of proven artistic, cultural and/or social relevance. MRI states directly that hobby artists and people who undertake purely private artistic activity are not eligible.

All fields of art and culture are open — MRI does not restrict by discipline, provided the criteria above are met.

Three exclusions cut applicants who otherwise fit:

• Citizenship exclusions. Citizens of EU member states and the European Economic Area, Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK and the USA cannot receive funding.
• No repeat funding. Artists who have already received MRI funding — in Germany or in their region of origin — are excluded, with Fast-Track as the stated exception.
• Applicants currently in Gaza. MRI states that because a regular exit from Gaza and therefore entry to Germany is not currently possible, it cannot accept applications from people who are in Gaza at the time of application. It also states that it reviews the circumstances each call and will accept such applications as soon as travel possibilities improve.

There is one more constraint that shapes everything else, and MRI is blunt about it: the MRI cannot assist with matching to a host organisation. Due to limited capacity, it does not help with the search. Applicants are told to use their own networks, or to approach organisations they know or have previously worked with. If you do not have a German host, you do not yet have an application — and finding one is the real work.

The Host Organisation Half of the Application

This is a tandem programme. Two applications must be submitted per project: an Artist Application, submitted by the artist or cultural actor, and a Host Application with attachments, submitted by the host organisation. Neither alone is complete.

Eligible hosts are non-profit organisations — MRI names museums, theatres, festivals, cultural collectives, socially relevant organisations, and non-governmental organisations. The formal requirements are substantial:

• The organisation must be a legal entity (a registered association, a non-profit GmbH, or a public-law corporation such as a university that can assign the project to a non-profit part of its structure). Private individuals cannot apply.
• It must pursue no economic interest or goal with the submitted project.
• It must be able to submit business documents for a non-profit audit: proof of registration, articles of incorporation, bylaws, corporate income tax assessment, notice of exemption or assessment under §60a(1) AO, and financial reports or annual balance sheets for the last three years.
• It should have experience handling public funds, or be prepared to acquire the competencies required by German grant law and the Federal Budget Code (Bundeshaushaltsordnung).
• It must be able to integrate the artist into its structures so that artistic and cultural work can continue, and to provide the necessary level of support.
• It must be prepared to address (digital) security and take the necessary measures.

The host’s operational role is heavier than a typical residency partner’s. MRI concludes the funding agreement with the host, which is responsible for the content-related, organisational and administrative delivery of the stay. The host pays out the monthly stipend, supports everyday matters such as accommodation and dealings with authorities, and makes its professional structures, know-how and networks available so the artist can continue creative work and build professional prospects. It is the artist’s primary point of contact from application through the end of the project, and the link between the artist and MRI.

One useful provision for groups: a host organisation may submit one application per round, but that application may include several artists — if they have already worked together, form a single unit, and are applying with a joint project. A band, an ensemble, or a collective qualifies.

How the Application Process Works, Step by Step

1. Secure a host organisation. Nothing else can proceed without one, and MRI will not help you find it.
2. Request platform access. Write to apply [at] mri-application [dot] de. Say whether you are an artist or a host organisation. If you are an artist, name the host organisation you want to work with; if you are a host, name the artist. Artists and hosts each need their own account. MRI recommends using ProtonMail so the correspondence is encrypted. Platform access has been available since 6 July 2026, and you will receive login details by email.
3. Complete the forms on your platform dashboard. All required documents appear there once you have an account.
4. Submit both applications digitally by 11 September 2026, 5:00 pm CEST.
5. Post the signed hardcopy. The host organisation prints, legally signs and stamps its Host Application and sends it by post, postmarked no later than 25 September 2026. MRI is explicit: the application is only complete once the signed form is received by post, the postmark date is decisive, and it is sufficient to send the signed form alone — no attachments.
6. Wait for the committee. After MRI checks formal eligibility, an independent committee of representatives from the German arts and cultural sector and civil society institutions selects the projects. The decision is announced at the end of November 2026.
7. If selected, MRI enters into a funding agreement with the host organisation, and a scholarship contract with the artist upon arrival. Funding periods can start no earlier than 15 January 2027; the scholarship period itself can start no earlier than 1 March 2027. MRI notes that individual start dates may be delayed for procedural reasons.

MRI has also run digital consultation workshops for this round — for artists on 14 July and 20 August 2026 (in English), and for host organisations on 16 July (German) and 20 August (English), each requiring registration by 5:00 pm CEST the previous day. If you are reading this after those dates, the substitute is a direct email to the contact address with specific questions.

What the Selection Committee Is Weighing

MRI publishes its criteria, and they reward a very particular kind of application — one where the risk is documented, the artistic record is real, and the pairing makes sense on the merits. The committee assesses:

• The existing threat or risk situation for the artist or cultural actor.
• The profile of the artist — the quality and social relevance of previous work, and its fit with MRI’s mission.
• The quality of the application and the capacities of the host organisation. MRI phrases this as a set of questions: are the goals and activities reasonable, appropriate, realistic and coherent? To what extent is the scholarship holder’s professional development or continuation of artistic and cultural work actually supported?
• The artistic and work-relevant fit between host and scholarship holder, including support and integration — in short, is this the right host for this person?
• Potential positive impact on the home or host community through the project.
• Gender and diversity aspects.

Read that list back as instructions. Two of the six criteria are about the host, not the artist. A generic offer of desk space from a well-known institution scores worse than a specific, thought-through plan from a small collective that genuinely works in the applicant’s discipline and has mapped out what fifteen months would produce.

Preparation Strategy

Build the pairing first, and build it honestly. The strongest applications come from relationships that already exist — a festival that programmed your work, a theatre that co-produced with you, an NGO that has followed your case. Cold approaches to famous institutions in the final weeks rarely convert, because the host is signing up for administrative liability under German grant law, not just goodwill.

Document the risk without endangering yourself. The committee needs to understand the threat, which means evidence: legal filings, formal warnings, documented harassment, reporting by press-freedom or human-rights organisations, statements from credible witnesses. Handle all of it over encrypted channels. MRI recommends ProtonMail, notes that unencrypted email and phone calls are not secure and should not carry sensitive information, and adds a warning worth taking seriously — check first whether using an encrypted service in your country of origin or residence could itself attract suspicion or legal action, and seek local advice or consult resources such as Privacy International if unsure.

Make the artistic record concrete. “Proven artistic, cultural and/or social relevance” is assessed from what you show: exhibitions, publications, performances, broadcasts, curatorial work, teaching, press coverage, awards. Assemble the portfolio in the form MRI’s platform asks for, not in the form you happen to have it.

Have the host start its paperwork now. The §60a exemption notice, three years of financial statements, articles of incorporation, and registration proof are not documents most small cultural organisations can pull together in a week — and the signed hardcopy has to be in the post by 25 September.

Plan the fifteen months. The application asks, in effect, what the stay is for. A plan that names specific works, collaborations, trainings, and audience-facing outcomes reads as a project. A plan that says “continue my practice in safety” reads as a gap.

Common Mistakes

• Missing the postal deadline. The 25 September postmark is a hard second deadline and the most avoidable failure in the whole process. International post is slow; leave margin.
• Only one half submitted. If the artist files and the host does not, or vice versa, the application is incomplete and cannot be funded.
• Assuming MRI will find a host. It will not, and it says so explicitly.
• Applying as a private individual on the host side. Private individuals cannot be host organisations. The host must be a legal entity with non-profit status.
• Treating MRI as emergency relief. Decisions come at the end of November 2026 and scholarships begin no earlier than 1 March 2027 — roughly six months from the deadline. Build a parallel plan if your situation is acute.
• Overlooking the citizenship and prior-funding exclusions until after weeks of work. Check them on day one.
• Communicating carelessly. Sensitive details sent over unencrypted email create risk for the applicant and sometimes for people around them.
• Assuming the visa permits employment. It does not automatically do so, which matters for how the artist and host plan the stay financially.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I apply on my own, without a host organisation? No. MRI states directly that this programme does not provide for direct scholarships. The application is submitted in tandem.

How much is the monthly stipend? Not published on the official application page. MRI describes a monthly scholarship plus individual support and work funds, but no figure is given. Ask MRI directly.

How long is the scholarship? Up to 15 months.

Which art forms qualify? All of them. MRI states that people from all fields of art and culture may apply, provided the general criteria are met.

Can a group apply together? Yes, within a single host application, if the artists have already worked together, form a single unit, and apply with a joint project — a band, ensemble, or collective.

Can I apply again if I have had MRI funding before? No. Multiple or follow-up funding is not possible, in Germany or in regions of origin, with Fast-Track funding as the stated exception.

When would I actually arrive in Germany? Funding periods start no earlier than 15 January 2027, and scholarship periods no earlier than 1 March 2027, with possible individual delays.

I left my country in May 2026 — am I still eligible? Potentially yes. The criterion is departure after 20 February 2026, the deadline of the previous MRI call, combined with the other requirements including lack of access to a safe abode.

Official Links and Contacts

• Application page (Programme Line 1): https://www.martin-roth-initiative.de/en/application-programme-line-1
• Martin Roth-Initiative homepage: https://www.martin-roth-initiative.de/en
• Platform access requests: apply [at] mri-application [dot] de
• General enquiries: info [at] mri-application [dot] de
• Telephone: +49 (0)30 284491-77

MRI asks that you review the published information thoroughly before making contact, and that you follow its safety recommendations for digital communication — while noting honestly that these are measures to improve protection, not guarantees of absolute safety.

Everything above is drawn from MRI’s official application page as checked on 26 July 2026. Details such as stipend amounts, contract terms, and visa arrangements are settled directly with MRI and the host organisation, so confirm anything decision-critical with the programme before you commit.