Sino German Scholarship 2026 for Intelligent Numerical Mathematics

The German Research Foundation (DFG) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) have announced an exciting new call for proposals under their long-standing research collaboration. The 2025 initiative, titled “Intelligent Numerical Mathematics” (iNum), aims to support outstanding joint projects that bring together top researchers from Germany and China in the fields of Numerical Mathematics and Scientific Computing.

About the Call

The iNum program fosters the integration of numerical methods with learning-based approaches, focusing on two fast-growing areas:

• Learning-based numerics – enhancing efficiency, robustness, and scope of numerical methods.
• Numerically efficient learning methods – developing improved algorithms for more robust and scalable machine learning.

Selected projects will receive up to three years of research funding, jointly supported by NSFC (China) and DFG (Germany). Proposals are expected to outline well-coordinated collaboration between both sides, with balanced contributions and open sharing of source codes and data.

The Scientific Themes

The initiative encourages research in areas such as:

• Learning of numerical parameters and adaptive criteria.
• Model reduction and multi-scale methods with learned components.
• Improved iterative solvers and parallelization strategies.
• Load balancing and error control in computational performance.
• Numerical optimization, sparsification, and scalable algorithms for machine learning.

This initiative challenges traditional methods and opens new directions in applied mathematics, computational science, and engineering.

Eligibility Criteria

• German applicants: Must follow DFG’s Research Grants (Sachbeihilfe) guidelines. Researchers in non-university institutions must partner with a German university.
• Chinese applicants: Must fulfill NSFC eligibility criteria.
• Projects linked to military applications or military institutions are not eligible.

Proposal Submission

All proposals under the Sino-German Call on Intelligent Numerical Mathematics (iNum 2025) must be jointly prepared in English and then submitted separately to each funding body. German principal investigators are required to submit through the DFG’s elan system, while Chinese principal investigators must apply via the NSFC portal. Each application must include a comprehensive research plan, details of the project team, and a coordinated budget that outlines resources requested on both sides.

Applicants submitting to the DFG for the first time must ensure they register on the elan system no later than 23 October 2025, as the confirmation of registration generally takes one working day. The final deadline for proposal submission is 30 October 2025.

Timeline

The deadline for submitting proposals is 30 October 2025. The results of the joint review and selection process will be announced by the end of May 2026, and successful projects will be awarded funding for a period of up to three (3) years.

Apply: https://www.dfg.de/en/news/news-topics/announcements-proposals/2025/ifr-25-61

Why This Matters for International Students?

For foreign students and early-career researchers in applied mathematics, AI, and computational sciences, this call presents a valuable opportunity to engage in high-impact international collaborations. Participating in projects like these can open doors to academic networks, joint publications, and long-term research careers bridging Europe and Asia.

Visit daadscholarship.com for More Fully-funded Scholarships 2026 News.