Gerda Henkel Foundation: Funding Programme Lost Cities Grant

Gerda Henkel Foundation: Funding Programme Lost Cities Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Gerda Henkel Foundation
Last Updated: March 18, 2026

Summary

The Gerda Henkel Foundation's Funding Programme Lost Cities seeks to explore the phenomenon of abandoned cities through interdisciplinary research. This program invites post-doctoral researchers to examine the historical and cultural significance of these cities, which have emerged due to various factors such as economic collapse and environmental changes. By fostering collaborative projects, the foundation aims to uncover the cultural memory, identity negotiation, and perceptions surrounding Lost Cities, providing a platform for impactful academic discourse.

Overview

Gerda Henkel Foundation Funding Programme Lost Cities The enormous process of urbanization, which has defined world history for thousands of years in different economic situations and with regional variations, and which is now developing a particular dynamism, has another side to it that initially appears paradoxical – namely the shrinking and entirely abandoned cities, the so-called Lost Cities. Current transformation processes in various parts of the world mean that many of these Lost Cities are emerging. Nevertheless, the phenomenon is not a new one but has been a widespread hallmark of urban history since the emergence of urban culture in the fourth century B.C. It has therefore been perceived, reflected on, and interpreted in very different ways in the cultural history of urban life. With this finding as a starting point and a goal of placing current problem situations in a greater historical context, the Gerda Henkel Foundation has established a new funding program for the theme Lost Cities. Perception of and living with abandoned cities in the cultures of the world. The funding program is designed to be interdisciplinary and to facilitate projects in which there are varied dimensions to the examination of abandoned cities. At the same time, there should be a focus on causal correlations, both with regard to specific individual cultures and spanning all cultures, and on specifics of place and time. Thus far, such places have emerged for very different reasons, including military destruction, natural disasters, epidemics, environmental pollution, economic collapse, financial speculation, mobility, migration, centralization, deindustrialization, or post-colonial change, to name but a few. The aim of the program is to describe the tangible cultures of interpretation, knowledge, and perception within these different contexts. Lost Cities are part of a distinct culture of memory, for example, which serves for the negotiation of identities, the preservation of knowledge cultures, the formulation of criticism of progress, or the construction of mythical or sacral topographies as part of a veritable “ruin cult”. On this basis, the focus here should not be on the question of which factors led to the city’s abandonment. Rather, it is the abandoned cities themselves that are of particular interest, as well as the different forms of their interpretation, instrumentalization, and coding in various cultures and time frames. Please see Frequently asked questions for additional informations.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Eligible to apply are post-doctoral researchers based in a university and working in the area of the humanities and the social sciences.Funding can be provided for projects with a thematic focus being addressed by a group of researchers. The Foundation uses the term “group of researchers” to mean associations of at least two researchers actively involved in the project work which is to be funded by means of scholarships from the Foundation and who are carrying out research into the same issues. Applications can only be made for PhD or research scholarships. Applications for a research scholarship by the applicant (project leader) are also possible. A maximum total of three scholarships per group of researchers can be applied for, as well as funds for travel and materials. A fundamental prerequisite for a grant is that project staff conduct their own research, which is published under their name.Other contributors who are not financed by scholarships can also be involved in the project.The funding programme also provides for the project partners to participate in a public “workshop discussion on Lost Cities” organised by the Foundation.The Foundation generally accepts applications for research projects made by universities, other research institutes or comparable institutions as well as by one or several Postdocs or scholars with Post Doctoral Lecture Qualification.The grants for research projects involve, depending on the type of project, the assumption of costs for personnel, travel, materials and/or other costs.The maximum duration is 36 months.As part of a research project, the costs incurred of visiting (foreign) scholars can also be financed.

Ineligibility

Scholarship applications made by individual researchers outside of the group are not accepted.Single scholarships for persons not members of the research groupPositions for academic staff subject to mandatory social insuranceMore than three scholarships for academic staffOverhead costsCollege and tuition feesApplications only for travel and equipment/materials