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NEW Competition for Students

IMPACT Logo

Would you like to leave your tracks at your place of study?
The university and the AKB Foundation cordially invite you to take part in the new Study with IMPACT competition. Develop smart and sustainable projects that benefit the university and society and have an innovative twist.

The best projects will be funded with up to 6,000 euros for their implementation!

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2025

The competition is organised twice a year, in January and June.



We are looking for projects with social commitment!

Your project should encourage you to think beyond your own studies and develop personally.

The end result could be a solution to a problem or better measures for teaching and learning conditions.

Impact is intended to give committed students the opportunity to design outstanding projects in order to initiate and realize innovative, creative processes that can have an impact on society.

Work with team spirit as a group, in pairs, in collaboration with lecturers or university staff - or as an individual. Think interculturally and across disciplines.

Applications can be submitted in these two funding lines:

  • Category A: Society

    Develop a creative project that addresses important issues for our society

  • Kategorie B: University

    Shape teaching and learning on the University of Göttingen campus


Category A: Society
The aim is to carry out student projects that address important social issues.

Possible focal points are, for example Social engagement and cooperative projects with a social impact Interdisciplinary approaches (processes, practices or structures) to solve specific problems Engagement in the city, region or worldwide Development of innovative exchange formats and network structures to tackle specific challenges


Category B: University
This calls for projects relating to specific study and teaching opportunities within the university.

Ideas on the following points are possible, for example: Developing student ideas that have a positive impact on the university community (in the area of studying and teaching) Joint projects with teaching staff and other university members to sustainably improve studies Further development of ideas from one of your courses/lectures New perspectives for integrating socially relevant topics into studies and teaching


For category B projects, you will find support from the IMPACT Team who will be happy to help you identify and approach project partners at the university, for example.


If you have any questions about your application, you can contact us by e-mail: impact[at]uni-goettingen.de

To submit your project, we need a brief presentation of your idea and the goals you would like to achieve with it. Please use Application portal in eCampus.


The following documents are requested:

  • A brief description of your planned activities and a letter of motivation
  • Selection of the category in which you would like to apply
  • Description of the project group, including short CVs of all students involved with a description of their current study situation
  • Detailed timetable and planning of the project phases
  • Detailed and justified financial plan (what the requested funds are needed for - funding amount max. 6,000 euros) - please use the following template: Cost projection
  • Details of university and external partners (incl. cooperative letters of intent from the partners)
  • Informal consent to the publication of a mandatory final report (transfer of rights to the University of Göttingen) and to the preparation of semesterly interim reports


Wichtig: Only complete applications that meet the formal criteria and are received before the submission deadline (Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 11:59 p.m.) will be considered for funding.

We are happy to assist you and offer an Idea Writing Workshop to support you with your application. The workshop takes place approximately one month before the submission deadline in each call for proposals. In the winter semester 2024/2025, this took place on Monday, December 9, 2024 from 2:15 pm to 6:00 pm, led by Dr. Ella Grieshammer (International Writing Lab, ISL). To participate, an initial project idea (about 100 words) must be submitted by e-mail to impact[at]uni-goettingen.de. The deadline for this was on Sunday, December 1st, 2024.



All students of the University of Göttingen in the undergraduate degree programmes (Bachelor, Teacher Training, State Examination) as well as in Master's degree programmes may participate.

An independent committee, in which students are also represented, decides on the selection of projects each semester. There is no legal recourse against the committee's decision. There are two calls for proposals per year.
The funds are earmarked for the respective project. Funding can be awarded to individual students as well as to student teams. The funding decision is made in the same semester and the funded projects are subsequently published.

Once the funded projects have been selected, a workshop on project management will be held to provide you with professional tools to help you carry out the project.

Important: What kind of projects cannot be funded?

  • projects that do not correspond with the sponsorship goals – e.g. business start-ups or projects targeting at financial profit
  • projects solely consisting of the funding of a club or the payment of salaries (particularly of team members)
  • projects focussing on the members' graduations and not containing any public utility


AKB Foundation

The program is made possible by the AKB Foundation (charitable foundation of the Carl-Ernst Büchting family), with whose support a fund has been set up for the implementation of such projects: More information on the AKB Foundation.