In addition to excellence in research, transdisciplinary research approaches (as described above) are of particular importance for the Exploration Pilots funding program.

Essential funding criteria are:

• Compliance with the goals stated in the call text for an Exploration Pilot on Responsible Innovation in Times of Transformation (i.e., convincing presentation of the development of a new, highly relevant research topic in transdisciplinary cooperation in Berlin)
• Research quality
  • Quality of the research project (scientific relevance of the topic, topicality, originality, long-term perspective, preliminary results, and/or previous work)
  • Transdisciplinarity of the project (integration of non-scientific expertise into the research process, methods and formats of the integration of non-scientific knowledge, description of the scientific and societal questions within the project, approaches for the sustainability of the project results and/or societal inclusion)
  • Objectives and coherence of the work program, conclusiveness of the project structure, cooperation between the disciplines, added value of the cooperation
  • Clarity of the plan towards a follow-up application aiming at third-party funding for the period beyond October 2026
  • Diversity of the group composition (in terms of involvement of different interest groups)

• Qualification of the applicants
• Expertise and track record in the relevant topic or related topics
• Promotion of equal opportunities and diversity (e.g., gender balance, inclusion of LGBTQ+ people, international people, disabled people; governance of the project; if applicable: study participants, planned accessibility of content, governance bodies etc.)
• Involvement and support of junior researchers
• Adequacy of the funds applied for
• Management, quality assurance
  • Adequacy of data collection and access; if applicable: quality of data management plan; realistic planning of work, of time and of milestones; realistic planning of dissemination of research results
• Efforts to provide transparent and reusable research results according to the practices of open science as understood by the BUA’s mission statement for Open Science.