Helmholtz Water Safety and Security Initiative

With the launch of the Helmholtz Water Safety and Security Campaign, the Helmholtz Association is addressing the critical challenge of ensuring sustainable and secure water management in the face of increasing global challenges. By leveraging interdisciplinary expertise and fostering collaboration across research domains, this campaign aims to develop innovative solutions in order to safeguard water as a vital resource for the 21st century.

Drought and heat stress, floods and heavy rainfall: Climate change is already having a significant impact on the water cycle. Both sudden water surplus and prolonged periods of scarcity, sometimes combined with heat waves, become more severe and less predictable. In countries of the Global South, it is already evident that this uncertain supply can hinder social and economic development. However, in the future, industrialized nations, like Germany, will also have to adjust to fluctuating water availability — and thus leading to competition between the needs of people and nature, industry, and agriculture: Water is the key resource of the 21st century.

The Helmholtz Association is tackling this pressing challenge with the launch of the Helmholtz Water Safety and Security Campaign. The breadth of Helmholtz expertise on the subject of water is unique in the German scientific landscape, as our centres cover the entire water cycle with their research focuses — from the global terrestrial water cycle to the molecular level. As part of a research campaign, the Helmholtz Initiative and Networking Fund (INF) will provide up to 9 million euros from 2026 to 2028 for three joint research projects by the Helmholtz Centres and their partners that are dedicated to shaping novel interdisciplinary research activities in the field of water safety and security for people and the environment.

The following portfolio addresses the campaign theme of „Water Safety and Security in the 21st Century“ by outlining three overarching water-related themes and three cross-cutting topics with high potential for scientific innovation and for transfer to application:

Portfolio of themes

Terrestrial water cycles (δ natural ./. anthropogenic)
Urban BlueGreenRed water systems (water, vegetation, energy)
Water quality and a pollutant-free water cycle

Cross-cutting topics

Monitoring, remote sensing and sensor technology
Digitalization, information technologies, data analysis
Synthesis, knowledge transfer and implementation

Structure of the campaign and the application process

The overall projects of the campaign will be selected in a two-step process consisting of A) a Lab-Proposal stage, and B) a Theme-Proposal stage, including two separate calls:

The first stage / the 1st call for applications (also Lab-Proposal) includes funding options for the establishment of three physical Solution Labs, each addressing one of the following themes: Terrestrial Water Cycles, Urban Water Systems, or Water Quality. With the location of the Solution Labs, successful applicants receive a funded position (1 FTE / ~ 100T€ p.a.) for coordination. The Solution Labs serve as hubs for the thematic projects, which are to be selected in the second stage of the campaign. Thus, together with their local conditions, the overarching research focus of the Solution Labs form the basis for the proposal for thematic projects in the second stage of the application process.

The second stage / 2nd call for applications (also Theme-Proposal) provides for the funding of one overall thematic project per location, including sub-projects. Each overall project should be based on the synergistic combination of several areas of expertise from different research areas. At the same time, a suitable transfer strategy with external partners / stakeholders is to be developed from the very beginning („Transfer-by-Design“). Specific information for applicants of the thematic projects will follow in the second call, which will be published at the beginning of May 2025.