LaTeX DFG template

A LaTeX template for a basic DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation) grant proposal. Attention: you need pdflatex and biber (not bibtex) to compile the document. Last updated according to the DFG original template listed in the header of the compiled PDF file (or in the *.tex files). Please check and open an issue if there are any updates to the original template not reflected here!

Acknowledgements

This template is based on the template of the Measurement Engineering Group and mimicks the RTF template and PDF guidelines provided by DFG with a focus on a "Sachbeihilfe" grant.

Thanks @FPK for suggesting and adding the cleveref package. Check the manual and use \cref{} instead of the default \ref for referencing your figures, tables, etc. General changes regarding lables can be done in the Header.tex

Thanks @nneuss a German version is also available. Please use dfg-german.tex instead of dfg.tex for the German version.

Thanks @dl1chb for better ToDo handling via the todonotes package and updates of the template.

Thanks @mank4 for the implementation of a gantt chart and better handling of subsections for work packages.

Thanks @klb2 for the implementation of consecutive section numbers for 1.2.1 and 1.2.2. Deprecated since DFG template version 54.01 09/22 where references are only listed in Section 3.

Thanks @gituser789 for the implementation of an own literature feature with separate numbering.

Thanks @kss-lea for adding separate numbering formats for the first and second (supplement) part.

Thanks @klb2, @FPK, and @wallscheid for updates to the new DFG-form 53.01 - 03/24 version.

Thanks @nise and @ThiloKr for the suggested changes to make author publications bold and @shervinsafavi for the PR implementing them.

Please let me know if I accidentally forgot a contribution! Thanks all contributors!

Compilation

pdflatex
biber
pdflatex
pdflatex

or

make

You can also change the filename of the ${NAME}.tex file and then run make filename=${NAME} (thx @dl1chb). For example, to compile the German version:

make filename=dfg-german

Biber

If you do not have biber installed try to install it from the package sources of your system. There is also a conda install that you can try:

conda create -n biber -c malramsay biber 
conda activate biber

Docker

You can also use a Docker container that comes with all dependencies (pdflatex, biber, ...) to compile the template. Thus, no installation of LaTeX, Biber, etc... is needed on your local system.

DOCKER='nanozoo/pdflatex:3.14159265--6263fbd'
docker pull $DOCKER

# using the Makefile
docker run --rm -v $PWD:$PWD -w $PWD $DOCKER make

# using pdflatex, biber, ... 
docker run --rm -v $PWD:$PWD -w $PWD $DOCKER pdflatex dfg.tex
docker run --rm -v $PWD:$PWD -w $PWD $DOCKER biber dfg
...

Optional content

The template implements some stuff that is not required by the original DFG template (or even needs to be removed when submitting to DFG). This includes a nice title page, as well as sections for a Signature and a List of Attachements. The LaTeX code is still available, just uncomment in the respective dfg.tex or dfg-german.tex.

ToDo-Notes, reference labels and draft mode

By default, ToDos and labels are activated (see below) which is considered the draft mode of the template. To turn both of them off (e.g. for the final version) just change \setboolean{finalcompile}{false} in dfg.tex to \setboolean{finalcompile}{true}.

ToDos are activated by default using the todonotes package. You can see it working by looking at the \todo[inline]{foo} statements in the text. It is self-explaining.

In addition you will see some labels at the margins. These are caused by another plugin which will just print the name of the label stated in \label{}. This can help by referencing sections and stuff.

Customization

Most of customization (citation style, etc.) can be done by changes in the proposal.sty. To change the default labels for referencing figures and tables (e.g. "Abbildung" for a figure in the german layout), look in the Header.tex file. Since v3.0.0 of the template the cleveref package is used replacing the standard \ref with the \cref command.

Bibliography

deprecated since DFG template version 54.01 09/22. All literature is listed in Section 3 now.

To add references to different parts of the proposal, you can define categories:

\DeclareBibliographyCategory{reviewed}
\addtocategory{reviewed}{Hoelzer:16}

that can be later used in the sections:

\printbibliography[category=reviewed, heading=none]

Recently, the DFG changed their template to have references in the sections 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 sorted consecutively. For other references in the bibliography, it seems that one can arrange them alphabetically. This was solved by @klb2 and changes were also included in this repo (thx!). The current default is numeric labels while first the references in sections 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 are numbered followed by all other references in the order how they appear in the text. Changes can be done via the proposal.sty file. @gituser789 also implemented a feature to number own references and all other references independently. This is activated by default and will add an 'O' or 'E' prefix to own ("eigene") literature in the english or german template, respectively. The user can change the prefix in the tex template. If you want to deactivate this feature, go to the tex template and comment/remove both \newrefcontext[labelprefix=] commands.

Bib Style

To change the style of your bibliography you have to change the following code snippet in the proposal.sty file:

\usepackage[backend = biber,
    style = numeric, %numeric, alphabetic
    firstinits = true,
    natbib = true,
    hyperref = true,
    maxbibnames = 11, % number of authors shown
    sorting=none, % remove this to have things sorted, e.g. use style=alphabetic
    ]{biblatex}

Highlight author's publications

It is recommended to higlight author publications. This can be done using bold font. Go to the Header.tex file and add the bib keys of the publications you want to highlight to this code section:

\addtocategory{important}{%
Hoelzer:16,Hoelzer:17,Smith2023b,Smith2023c,Smith2023d,MIller1900, % don't miss the comma after the last entry
}

The listed publications will be written in bold in the reference list. The citations in the text will be also bold. Change the behavior in the proposal.sty file if necessary.

Sum up costs

The environment funds can be used to automatically sum up all costs specified like this:

\begin{funds}[funding for staff]

\positionmul{Research associate, TV-L 13, 36 months}{5375}{36}
\positionmul{Student assistant, TV-L 13, 12 months}{450}{12}

\end{funds}

Gantt chart

You will find a gantt/gantt.tex file that can be modified directly to include a gantt chart in your proposal.

Disclaimer

I used this template for an actual proposal submission in 2019 to the DFG that was accepted and send out for review (unfortunately, not accepted in the end).

If you use this template and receive a confirmation, please let me know and I will be happy to reference your successful application here! :)

Furthermore, please be aware that since May 2020 the proposal is split into a more research focused part (sections 1-3, max. 17 pages) and all the supplementary information (starting section 4, max. 8 pages). Please also always check if there are any changes to the DFG template!