FCI call for proposals highlights the importance of digital skills in chemistry education
The Chemical Industry Fund (FCI) has announced the results of its call for proposals, launched at the end of 2025, aimed at strengthening data science in university chemistry (see press release). A total of 23 projects will receive funding amounting to 1.6 million euros.
The aim of the call for proposals is to systematically embed data-related skills in chemistry education. Individual projects will receive up to €100,000 in funding; a prerequisite is a 20 per cent contribution from the respective university.
Six NFDI4Chem sites involved
The funded projects include six initiatives involving stakeholders from the NFDI4Chem consortium (the NFDI4Chem contact persons are listed in brackets):
- University of Ulm (A. Engstfeld)
- RWTH Aachen University (S. Herres-Pawlis & C. Bannwarth)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (N. Jung)
- Technical University of Dortmund (S. Kast)
- RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau (G. Manolikakes)
- Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg (U. Schatzschneider)
Digital skills in chemistry
The call for proposals highlights the growing need for digital skills throughout the entire research data lifecycle in chemistry. Whilst digital data collection and publication are well established in many areas, there is still a need for further development, particularly in the areas of structured data processing, analysis and reuse – both in academic research and in relation to industry requirements.
NFDI4Chem has been addressing these developments for several years with programmes designed to teach research data literacy and digital methods. For instance, the Chemistry Data Days 2025 dedicated a key theme to the integration of research data management into teaching. In addition, the article “Teaching digital literacy in university chemistry”, published in Nachrichten aus der Chemie 02/2026, highlights current challenges and approaches (https://doi.org/10.1002/nadc.20264156049).
The projects funded by the FCI contribute to embedding digital skills more firmly across the breadth of chemistry education, thereby further improving the ability to connect with data-driven research and industrial practice.
We would like to thank the FCI for launching this call for proposals and for the recognition it has given to the teaching of digital skills, as well as for the six grants awarded to members of our consortium!
