The humanities and social sciences are rooted in various languages and cultures that constitute both their object of study and their means of expression.
In order to promote exchanges between French, German, and Italian researchers in the humanities and social sciences, but also to encourage the construction of scientific networks and the use of French, German, and Italian as scientific languages, the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), and Villa Vigoni have developed the "Tri-Lateral Workshops" programme, one of the fundamental principles of which is multilingualism.
Each Trilateral Workshop consists of a series of three scientific meetings, organized once a year. All meetings are held at Villa Vigoni, on the shores of Lake Como. Projects from all fields of the humanities and social sciences can be submitted.
The participants in the Workshops form a core group of up to 15 researchers from the three partner countries. This group will remain the same for the duration of the program. The participation of young researchers in the Workshops is encouraged.
A limited circle of invited researchers who are not exclusively German, French or Italian may be added to the meetings. The means made available by the three partner institutions do not, however, include the financing of these guests, with the exception of the DFG, which allows the German coordinators of the Trilateral Workshops to finance participants from other countries as well, provided that their participation is scientifically motivated. However, this will not lead to an increase in the total amount allocated.
Early career researchers
The participation of researchers at the beginning of their career is highly desirable. In order to facilitate the submission of a project, postdocs (up to 6 years after the defense of the thesis) may choose to submit their application in a reduced format. This variant is only possible if at least two of the three project leaders and at least half of the participants are in the postdoctoral phase defined above. In this case, the conditions are as follows: support for two years for two (instead of three) meetings and with a group of 9 (minimum) to 12 (maximum) participants; each of the three partner countries must be represented by at least 2 (if there are more than 9 participants, by at least 3) persons.
Furthermore, in this case, the institutional affiliation of the project leaders is only required for the first year after the acceptance of the project. For the second year, it must be justified during the first year; if this is not possible, the coordination of the project must be transferred to another member of the group who is himself in the postdoctoral phase defined above and who has the institutional affiliation required for the second year of the project.
The two-year variant for the benefit of postdocs will be implemented starting with the 2021 call, initially for three years.
The working languages of a trilateral workshop are french, german and italian.
