Primary and Secondary Use

Cruise proposals for research vessels may be designated as either primary use or secondary use, irrespective of whether they are submitted as regular cruise proposals or as SPP 2520 grant Proposals. Primary use requires the majority of the available berths on board, and the person applying is generally expected to serve as chief scientist. Secondary use involves smaller teams (normally up to three persons) who make use of free berths on primary-use cruises with the aim of conducting an additional research programme that is often separate from the primary use. 

Cruises on the medium-sized vessels ALKOR, HEINCKE and ELISABETH MANN BORGESE are always dedicated to primary use only; there is no provision for secondary use on these vessels.

Regular Cruise Proposals

Regular cruise proposals are submitted to request the research resources “ship time” and “berths”. Funding for carrying out the cruise and analysing the results cannot be obtained through a Regular Cruise Proposal; such resources must already be anticipated from other project-based or institutional funding sources. A Regular Cruise Proposal sets out aspects such as the scientific motivation for the project, its relationship to other programmes and funding schemes, and the objectives and work programme – both for the overall project and specifically for the requested ship time.

SPP 2520 Grant Proposals

SPP 2520 grant proposals(externer Link) are scientific project proposals with a defined need for funding, submitted in response to the annual calls issued under the DFG Infrastructure Priority Programme SPP 2520 “Research Vessels”. Projects under SPP 2520 generally include funding to carry out the cruise and undertake the initial analysis of the collected data and samples (one to two years of postdoctoral funding). Full analyses supported by doctoral researchers are expected to be obtained through other programmes. See the SPP 2520 website for details.

Since the SPP 2520 Grant Proposal cannot capture all the information required for evaluating the planned cruise, a Corresponding Core Cruise Proposal with details of the cruise, the at-sea work programme and the cruise participants must be submitted at the same time via the elan portal. The project proposal and the Corresponding Core Cruise Proposal are combined by the GPF Office and entered into the review process as a single unit.

Calls under SPP 2520 are published annually in July; the submission deadline is always in December of the same year. Applicants are informed of the review outcome in June of the following year. The corresponding DFG award letters are not issued until the beginning of the subsequent year; the proposed cruises can then start from May onwards, taking account of necessary lead times for expeditions. This means that the waiting period from submission of a SPP 2520 Grant Proposal to the start of an expedition is at least one and a half years – from December of one year to May of the next year but one, or even longer in the case of earlier submissions and/or later cruises. 

With regard to the types of funding that may be requested, the agreements under SPP 2520 must be observed. Before submitting a SPP 2520 Grant Proposal, applicants should attend the annual SPP 2520 coordination workshops if possible. When applying for costs to cover the use of large-scale seagoing research equipment, existing core support and any agreed flat-rate charges(externer Link) must be taken into account. Eligible costs include project-specific additional expenses, in particular travel and overtime for technical staff, transport costs and – in the case of external use – the cost of insurance.