From Gradware to Utilization

Funding to improve the utilization prospects of research tools in industry and research.

Background

Helmholtz is committed to driving innovation forward. Classically, this is the utilization or transfer of research results in industrial contexts. For KiKIT, we are not limited to the industrial context: We also target the utilization within research or societal contexts. But to enable transfer, we need to develop great research tools of high quality (documentation, robust, maintained). With this call, we encourage and fund concrete actions to improve the utilization prospects of our existing research tools. Research tools are of course research software, but also AI models and other artifacts are in the scope. Applications from young researchers (doctoral researchers or postdocs) are welcome. 


Details

  • Goal: Enhancement of the fitness of our research tools for application in industry or research scenarios.
     
  • Funding is provided for appropriate measures, such as, but not limited to
    • Adapting the software for other domains (e.g., hardware support, HPC, other languages)        
    • Writing documentation, books, tool papers, or other training material
    • Improvement of software quality
    • Exploration of industrial use-cases and market opportunities
    • Visits of other Helmholtz centers and industrial partners
       
  • Volume: Funded is a period of one year maximal, but not longer than the end of 2025. Requested volume can be funding for up to 6 person-months for a doctoral researcher, incl. travel overhead, or funding of research assistants. Prolongation is possible.
     
  • Eligible to apply: All KiKIT PIs as well as post-docs and doctoral researchers (associated with a KiKIT-PI) can apply for funding. The research tool does not already need to be part of KiKIT. 
     
  • Proposals: Please Short proposal of maximal two pages including the background, statement of the current impact of the software and future possible utilization prospects, the goals and objective, and a concrete working plan. 
     
  • Obligations: Obligation to write a short final report on the implementation of the work plan, improvement of the utilization prospects, and any successes/cooperation. Entry in Helmholtz Software Directory is mandatory. 
     
  • Apply: Application is possible at any time. Please hand in your proposal to Alexander Weigl.