Feldman Travel Grants 2026: research trips in 18 countries

The Max Weber Foundation accepts applications for the Gerald D. Feldman Travel Grants until 4 October 2026. The programme funds research trips to foundation institutes across 18 countries for scholars in the humanities and social sciences.

No nationality condition applies here, since highly qualified academics of any nationality may apply. So for a Ukrainian researcher this is one of the few German instruments that requires neither a German applicant partner nor a host institution in Germany.

This guide covers how the programme works, what the funding covers, the qualification requirements, and one detail in the document package that decides whether you make the 4 October deadline.

Who the Max Weber Foundation is and where its institutes sit

So the Max Weber Stiftung is a German foundation headquartered in Bonn that maintains a network of humanities research institutes abroad. It confers the Feldman Travel Grants once a year, advertising them each June with a deadline in October.

The network of institutes covers ten institutions: the German Forum for Art History in Paris, German historical institutes in London, Paris, Rome, Warsaw and Washington, the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, the Max Weber Forum in Delhi, and the Orient Institutes in Beirut and Istanbul. The Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History in Israel joins them.

Two strands explain why Ukraine appears on the country list: the Max Weber Network Eastern Europe and the Research Centre Ukraine. So the foundation engages with Ukrainian subject matter systematically instead of occasionally.

What the grant funds and how much

Two or three countries, one month maximum in each

The design here is unusual, and it determines what kind of application makes sense. A researcher carries out a self-chosen project in at least two and at most three host countries where the foundation has institutes or branches. Each placement runs no longer than one month, and shorter stays also qualify.

In practice the trips serve research work, above all in libraries and archives. The foundation expects participants to produce transnational and transregional studies that bring new and original ideas into the field.

The practical consequence. A project working with the archive of a single country does not fit this scheme at all. So build the application from the start around a comparison or a connection between at least two research sites.

The list of host countries

Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Poland, Singapore, Turkey, Ukraine, USA.

What the funding covers

• travel costs to the foreign institute and back;
• daily rates between EUR 32 and EUR 68 depending on the host country;
• lodging in one of the institute inexpensive guest rooms, depending on the country chosen and on availability.

Keep expectations realistic here. This is a travel grant instead of a fellowship, so it removes the cost of the trip and the accommodation while providing no salary or research budget. However, institute guest rooms usually cost far less than renting in the same cities, so the real value runs higher than the daily rates suggest.

Who can apply

Qualification requirements

Applications come from highly qualified humanities and social science academics of any nationality. The highest degree held must be at least a Master, an M.A., a state examination or a German Diplom.

In general the rule requires existing publications and a research plan. Doctoral students get an exception, because publications are not necessarily required from them. So a PhD student faces a lower entry threshold in this call than a degree holder without publications.

Also there is no age restriction. Projects related to the research priorities of the foundation institutes and branches take precedence, so before drafting, open the pages of the two or three institutes you picked and check the thematic fit.

Restrictions worth knowing in advance

• Re-application. A second application is possible only where the rejection letter states this explicitly. That runs stricter than most programmes, which permit resubmission by default.
• Employees and scholarship holders of the foundation cannot take part in the process.

The document package and the detail that decides your timing

All documents go through the application portal in German or English.

• a completed application form;
• an academic CV;
• a detailed presentation of the intended research project, up to 2,000 words, stating the sources that justify staying in those specific countries or institutes;
• copies of certificates, including the PhD certificate;
• a list of publications, not mandatory for doctoral students;
• a reference opinion from an expert on the applicant status and the progress of the work;
• a letter from a host institution in Germany, if a stay there is planned.

You do not send the reference yourself

This is the detail that causes applications to miss the deadline. The reference must arrive from the reviewer by email directly to the foundation central office at feldman@maxweberstiftung.de. You neither collect it nor attach it to the package.

In practice that means, with three weeks left before 4 October, the conversation with a reviewer belongs in this week. An academic who agrees to write a reference still needs time to write and send it, and your only way to chase it is indirect.

The German letter applies under one condition only

Specifically, a letter confirming supervision by a host institution in Germany becomes mandatory when you plan a research stay in Germany. Where your two or three host countries lie outside Germany, that document falls away.

For a Ukrainian application this simplifies preparation noticeably. A route through Warsaw, Paris and Rome needs one negotiated document fewer than a route that includes a German institute.

Selection criteria and how to write for them

Finally, the foundation names three criteria, and each one reads as a requirement for the text of the application.

• Academic excellence. The standard criterion, assessing the quality of the research and the qualification of the applicant.
• A transnational or comparative topic. This follows directly from the two-to-three-country design. The 2,000-word presentation has to show why the project needs those particular sites and what their combination delivers.
• A contribution to further academic qualification. The project should serve a dissertation, a habilitation or the next career step, instead of standing as a self-contained episode.

The weakest point in a typical application sits in the second criterion. A researcher picks countries by archive convenience, then justifies the choice in general terms. The presentation should name specific collections, holdings and documents at each institute, and explain exactly which connection between them the project examines.

The full conditions, covering daily rate calculation and reporting, appear in the 2026 Guidelines and the frequently asked questions, which the foundation published as separate documents for this round.