ECIU > ECIU University > Offer ECIU Learning Opportunities > Call ECIU@TUHH 2026

APPLICATION OPEN for seed funding for ECIU Learning Offerings at TUHH in 2026

"The TU Hamburg is a place of education. Those who study with us prepare themselves for the challenges of the future and learn to broaden the horizons of technology, science and society."

This is how TU Hamburg’s mission statement for teaching begins. The teaching/learning format Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) as well as international and interdisciplinary courses at TU Hamburg are seen as a promising and innovative approach to living the mission statement in studies and teaching. Since 2019, several lecturers have experimented with CBL in pilot projects initiated by ECIU University at TU Hamburg. Innovations and the testing of new formats and processes are essential in order to realise the mission statement and the vision of ECIU University, to which TU Hamburg is also committed, at TU Hamburg and to support the further introduction of CBL.

This call for funding offers you, the lecturers at TU Hamburg, the opportunity to apply for financial support for the introduction of CBL, the opening for students of the ECIU partners and the further development of your course into an interdisciplinary course.

For the realisation of a course as an ECIU Challenge in the format of CBL, the implementation is funded with €20,000 and - on the prerequisite that the third funding phase is approved - the repetition with €4,000. Within the thrid call the implementation of three ECIU Challenges can be funded.

The aim of the funding call is to support the further development of existing courses into international and interdisciplinary courses in the format of Challenge-Based Learning preferably in cooperation with ECIU partners.

The submission deadline for courses in WiSe 25/26 and SoSe 26 and is May 20th 2025. Please use the submission form [link will come soon].

If you have any questions or need advice, please contact Dr. Dorothea Ellinger via eciu@tuhh.de.

Funding Criteria

The aim of the call for funding is to contribute to the further development of existing courses into international and interdisciplinary courses in the format of Challenge-Based Learning. In order to achieve this goal, this call for proposals is aimed for CHALLENGES

in an accredited degree programme or from the NTA area, if a course has already been approved there,
exclusively for the Master students,
taught exclusively in English, including English working materials.

Newly appointed professors can also apply with a new course to be planned, provided it is part of a study programme.

In order to receive funding, it must be demonstrated in an application that the follwoing criteria might be fullfilled:

the course is opened up as a Challenge for students from ECIU partners,
in addition to the students of the course, at least 10 places are made available for students of the ECIU partners (in accordance with the Presidential Board resolution of 13 September 2023, the sum of participating students from TU Hamburg and the ECIU partners must be at least 10 or more for recognition on your teaching load)
the didactic design enables the acquisition of interdisciplinary or international competences
the didactic design follows the principles of Challenge-Based Learning.
collaboration with an external partner (e.g. non-TUHH academic, enterprise or industry, partner from municipality or NGO) as a challenge provider, training partner or feedback provider is mandatory. Thos do not have to be found when submitting the application, but an idea sketch of who would be considered must be available. The ECIU@TUHH team supports the search, but the responsible teacher must proactively participate in the search and agreements. No funding is allowed to spend before external partner agreed to join the Challenge.
Workload scope for students has to be 1, 3 or 6 ECTS

Furthermore, the promotion is associated with:

The experiences from conducting the funded event are presented either at a final event of I3ProTeachING as a poster or within conferences on teachng innovations (e.g. ECIU Forum, TURN Conference).
The willingness to share results within the teaching community of the ECIU network is declared (e.g. at ECIU Lunch&Learn, ECIU Tea(m)cher Kick-Off or the CBL workshops by and for teachers)

Courses that are prepared and conducted in collaboration with ECIU partners receive preferential funding. But collaboration is not a requirement. The list of partners can be found here . If the Challenge is carried out in collaboration with two other ECIU partners as a blended intensive program , the host university can be funded with further €6,000 from ERASMUS+ for its implementation. Active cooperation of the teaching staff in the application and processing is essential; support is provided by the International Office and the ECIU@TUHH team .

Application and selection process

Professors at TU Hamburg are invited to submit applications via eciu@tuhh.de. The proposals can be submitted in German or English. Use the submission form from down load below, please. [form will be available soon]
The deadline for submitting application documents is May 20th 2025. Only proposals for courses with implementation in WiSe25/26 and SoSe26 will be considered for funding.
A TUHH jury will evaluate all proposals based on the quality and effectiveness of the plan, the credibility of the ways to achieve the expected results and impacts, and the clarity of the objectives. The jury decides in the third week of June 2025 and will then inform you of the final decision as quickly as possible. Jury is composed of:

Vice President for Education as representative of the project management ECIUn+@TUHH
ECIU Education Point of Contact at the TUHH
Employee from the ZLL as an expert in teaching and learning
A teacher or an employee from the SLS/Abt. 3 as an expert in administrative framework conditions and sustainable implementation in the teaching/learning offerings at the TUHH
two students

4. Funding for teaching innovations in WiSe25/26 begins in September 2025 and for SoSe26 in January 2026.

All proposals must meet the formal requirements listed under funding criteria. Proposals assessed against the formal criteria will be evaluated against the following criteria (in order of importance):

Additional benefit: The teaching innovation represents a substantial contribution to the further development of existing courses towards international and interdisciplinary events at the TUHH within the ECIU University.
Implementation of CBL: The project contributes to the implementation of challenge-based learning in the existing courses at the TUHH.
Expected impact on student learning and/or student experience: The projects should have an impact on student learning and on the applicant’s teaching experience. For this purpose, a suitable evaluation and experience exchange concept must be presented and implemented by the teacher.
The repeated feasibility of the proposed initiative with the aim of permanently integrating this teaching format into the study program.

If you have any questions or need advice, please contact the ECIU@TUHH team or Dr. Dorothea Ellinger at eciu@tuhh.de .

Submission form Call ECIU@TUHH 2026

Conditions spending the funding

For the realisation of a course as an ECIU Challenge in the format of CBL, the implementation is funded with €20,000 and - on the prerequisite that the third funding phase is approved - the repetition with €4,000.

From the EU-funded ECIUn+ project, €272,000 is available to be spent between Oct 2022 and Sept 2026 in accordance with the “ECIU capacity & competence development framework” to support the implementation of Challenges and Micromodules (not included in third Call). The sum advertised per Challenge represents start-up financing, which may not be enough to cover all expenses incurred. The sums stated represent the maximum funding. The funding provided can be used for covering teaching hours, consultancy fees or student assistance, trainings of dedicated teachers or work shadowing visits as well as course-related material costs, course-related travel costs of TUHH staff, to hire and train student tutors or the organization of the on-campus phase of Challenges.

Please note that the budget is only available for TUHH staff and activities. This cannot be used to finance personnel costs from other ECIU universities or external partners. It may of course be possible for the partners to receive funding from their own institutions.