HEAS Seed Grants
Our HEAS Seed Grant initiative offers up to €5,000 to support interdisciplinary pilot projects that promote the HEAS network. We want to keep it simple and unbureaucratic.
All HEAS PhDs, Postdocs, and PIs are eligible to apply. There are three calls for applications each year, and at least three grants are awarded each call. The 2026 submission deadlines are:
28th February, 30th June, 31st October
Application Guidelines
– Proposals must bring together researchers and or facilities from at least two of the seven HEAS research units
– You may lead only one HEAS Seed Grant at a time but may participate in up to two concurrent grants (i.e. as lead on one and collaborator on another).
Applications should contain:
- Project title
- 50-75 word abstract
- 1-2 page proposal including:
— Project aims (e.g., proof of concept, preparation for larger grant applications, etc.)
— HEAS researchers and research units involved
— How the project advances HEAS’s interdisciplinary mission
— Future implications
— Plans for applying to larger-scale funding programs
— Basic budget (e.g. 110 samples sequencing @ € 15.00 = €1650.00, or 67.5h lab technician @ € 20.00 = €1350.00,” no quotes required)
- 1 page bibliography
- 1-3 page CV
Complete applications of no more than 6 pages should be submitted as a single PDF document on the internal registrations link.
Evaluation, Approval, and Reporting
Applications are evaluated by the HEAS Management Board and applicants will be advised of evaluation results via e-mail. The average turn-around time for evaluation is three weeks, and the current average success rate is 50-60%.
Grant recipients will be announced in the “News” section of the HEAS website and present a PechaKucha (20 sides in 400 seconds) introducing their project to the HEAS community. Upon project completion recipients are to submit a 1-3 page report relating project findings, future implications, funding follow-up plans, and spending.
For more information about the HEAS Seed Grant initiative or to submit an application, please contact Maeve, and for support in developing a HEAS Seed Grant please contact our interdisciplinary research coordinator at: penaloza.patzak[at]univie.ac.at, being sure to note “HEAS Seed Grant” in your subject heading.
Funded projects
February 2026
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Mario Gavranović, Olivia Cheronet, Gábor Sánta Ágnes Somogyvári | Feb-26 | Genetic and Isotope Tests of a Tumulus Culture Population in Southern Hungary: Newcomers or Locals? |
4400 |
| Doralice Klainscek, Pamela Fragnoli ,Johannes H. Sterba | Feb-26 | Looking at the Ground Raw Material Suitability in the Desert Landscape of NW Arabia | 4920 |
| Mareike Stahlschmidt, Laura van der Sluis, Peter Steier, Lyndelle Webster | Feb-26 | Radiocarbon dating of bones and charcoal preserved in resin impregnated sediment blocks | 5000 |
| Carla Gómez-Montes and Timothy Canessa | Feb-26 | Clarifying the Nature of Human-Animal Occupations in Chufín Cave with Chronological and Paleoproteomic Data | 5000 |
October 2025
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Caroline Partiot, Alina Tüzel, Gwenaëlle Goude, Maïté Rivollat, Fernando Ramirez-Rozzi, Barbara Horejs | October 2025 | Unveiling Neolithic Identities in the Balkans: Multiproxy Anthropological Insights from an Immature Human Remain from Svinjarička Čuka, Serbia | 4780 |
| Emily Pigott, Tom Higham, Katerina Douka,Pere Gelabert, Peter Steier | October 2025 | Investigating the Châtelperronian of Cova Foradada using palaeoproteomics, radiocarbon dating, ancient DNA and stable isotopes | 5000 |
| Jessica Mendes Cardoso,Alexandra Rodler-Rørbo,, Renata Estevam | October 2025 | Coloring the Dead: a preliminary geochemical study of ochre in human burials of Brazilian shellmounds | 4000 |
| Marta Luciani | October 2025 | Beads, Blanks and Raw Materials. LA-ICP-MS geochemical characterization and sourcing of carnelian beads in Western Asia. | 5000 |
June 2025
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Doris Jetzinger, Martin Fera | June 2025 | Time is of the essence Establishing combined (p)OSL profiling and dating of archaeological features with unclear chronological contexts in Austria | 3000 |
| Anastasia Papadogianni, Katerina Douka, Barbara Horejs | June 2025 | Dental calculus as a palaeodietary tool: application to the Early Neolithic of Greece | 2975 |
| Alexandra Rodler-Rørbo, Mathias Mehofer, Matthias Hoernes | June 2025 | Tracing Lead Provenance in Inland Basilicata: First Isotope Analysis of Lucanian Lead Objects from the Agri Valley | 3000 |
| Pere Gelabert, Viola Schmid, Susanna Sawyer | June 2025 | A Flexible Open-Access In-Solution Capture Design for Paleogenomics | 3000 |
February 2025
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Michaela Schauer, Georg Tiefengraber | February 2025 | AI-Assisted Full-Spectrum p-XRF Analysis: A New Approach to Decoding Graphite Provenance | 3000 |
| Leslie Quade, Laura van der Sluis, Manasij Pal Chowdhury, Thomas Köcher | February 2025 | Refining dentine extraction methods for detecting metabolites indicative of tobacco use in archaeological teeth | 3000 |
| Sojung Han, Ron Pinhasi, Andreas G. Heiss | February 2025 | Genetic Excavation of Pathogens: Insights from the Bürgerspital Cesspit (17th-18th Century Vienna) | 3000 |
October 2024
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Barbara Horejs, Magdalena Blanz, Maddalena Gianni, Laura van der Sluis | October 2024 | Optimising bone collagen extraction protocols for stable isotope ratio analysis for animal bones from Çukuriçi Höyük and Svinjarička Čuka | 3000 |
| Mareike Stahlschmidt, Susanna Sawyer, Viola Schmid | October 2024 | Micromorphological and sedaDNA analysis at the Middle and Later Stone Age site of Rose Cottage Cave, South Africa | 3000 |
| Stefan Krojer Immo Trinks. | October 2024 | High-resolution underwater archaeological photogrammetric 3D documentation of the entire UNESCO World Heritage component part See, Lake Mondsee. | 3000 |
June 2024
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Laura van der Sluis, Peter Steier, Martin Street | June 2024 | Refining pretreatment chemistry approaches to improve the dating of highly contaminated archaeological bone: The case of the Late Glacial Miesenheim site, Germany. | 3000 |
| Manasij Pal Chowdhury, Georg Tiefengraber | June 2024 | Optimisation of extraction protocol for analysis of ceramic-bound proteins from modern and archaeological pottery | 2970 |
| Pere Gelabert, Manasij Pal Chowdhury | June 2024 | Correspondance between sedaDNA and Paleproteines in the Late Pleistocene in Patagonia | 3000 |
February 2024
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Bühler, Kirchengast, Kornfeind and Exel. | February 2024 | Rider muscle activity in horseback archery: A comparative, transdisciplinary approach to different “horse-riding styles | 2992 |
| Susanna Sawyer, Florian Exler and Thomas Beard | February 2024 | Developing nanopore sequencing for ancient DNA | 3000 |
| José-Miguel Tejero, Susanna Sawyer, Jürgen Kriwett | February 2024 | Testing minimally invasive aDNA extraction methods | 3000 |
October 2023
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Dominik Hagmann, Barbara Borgers | October 2023 | Comprehensive Analysis of Pottery Composition from Traismauer/Augustianis: Rethinking Roman Trade Networks | € 2.986,00 |
| Mareike Stahlschmidt, Katerina Douka, Thomas Beard | October 2023 | Collagen-based taxonomic identification of bones preserved in resin impregnated sediment blocks | € 2.590,00 |
| Magdalena Blanz, Günther Grabner, Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta, and Alexandra Krenn-Leeb | October 2023 | Diet and Subsistence in the Lower Austrian Early Bronze Age – A bioarchaeological view through C and N stable isotope ratios on selected find complexes of the Wieselburg/Gáta, Unterwölbling and Únětice cultures | € 3.000,00 |
| Michelle Hämmerle, José-Miguel Tejero, Olivia Cheronet | October 2023 | Development of a bioinformatics tool to assess aDNA preservation from pooled extracts | € 3.000,00 |
| Mathias Mehofer, Laura Dietrich | October 2023 | Metal exchange networks and hoard biographies in Late Bronze Age Romania – First archaeometallurgical studies on the metal hoard from Bandul de Câmpie, jud. Mures. |
€ 2.974,50 |
| Lumila Menéndez, Katerina Douka, Tom Higham | October 2023 | Applying Zooms And 14c For Studying Human-Canid Interactions In Ancient South America | € 3.000,00 |
June 2023
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Susanna Sawyer, Pere Gelabert, Mareike Stahlschmidt | June 2023 | Tissue source determination of ancient DNA in sediment | €3.000,00 |
| Laura van der Sluis, Georg Tiefengraber | June 2023 | Early Bronze Age clothing bone pins from the Natural History Museum archive | €3.000,00 |
| Tom Higham, Emese Végh | June 2023 | HUMEVCOL – Human Evolution Beyond Collagen | €2.955,47 |
February 2023
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount Granted |
| Victoria Oberreiter and Florian Exler | February 2023 | Analyzing Altamira: The first aDNA analyses of the renowned cave paintings from northern Spain | €3.000,00 |
| Annette Oertle, Katerina Douka, Frank Zachos | February 2023 | Using museum collections for ZooMS marker development of New Guinea taxa | €3.000,00 |
| Dominik Hagmann, Sylvia Kirchengast | February 2023 | Undiscovered Ancient Deathscapes“: Archaeothanatological Analysis Of Roman and Early Medieval Inhumations from Cemeteries in the Southeastern Upper Danube River Basin (sUDRB) during the Roman Climate Optimum (RCO) and Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) | €3.000,00 |
| Olivia Cheronet, Maria Teschler-Nicola, Daniel Fernandes, Adrian Daly | February 2023 | Confirmation of the presence of Mucopolysaccharidosis in the Medieval population of Pottenbrunn (Lower Austria) | €3.000,00 |
| Richard Kimber, Susanna Sawyer,Florian Exler | February 2023 | A density separation approach for improved ancient DNA yields from sediments | €3.000,00 |
September 2022
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount granted |
| Laura van der Sluis (DEA), Karina Groemer (NHM), Christine Lefèvre & Dr. Sophie Cersoy (NMHM), Stephan Krämer (EDGE), Annette Oertle (DEA)
|
30th September 2022 | Developing methods for the identification of glues and consolidants in museum collections: a Pilot Project | €2.800,00 |
| Meriam Guellil, Pere Gelabert and Ron Pinhasi (DEA) | 30th September 2022 | Exploring the Narrenturm Pathological Collection | €3.000,00 |
| Brina Zagorc and Magdalena Blanz | 30th September 2022 | Health and diet intertwined: co-analysing genetic markers with dietary stable isotopes ofsubadults from Roman and Early Medieval Croatia | €3.000,00 |
March 2022
| Applicant | Round | Project | Amount granted |
| Emily J. Kate | 31st March 2022 | The Authority of the Feast: A Comparative Approach to Studying Feasting in Chiefly Societies | € 3.000,00 |
| Pere Gelabert, José-Miguel Tejero | 31st March 2022 | Assessing the differential DNA preservation in Palaeolithic sediments and osseous tools from museum collections | € 3.000,00 |
| Xin Huang | 31st March 2022 | dbHAP: A database for understanding and visualizing genomic diversity with human ancestral populations | € 2.840,00 |
| Barbara Horejs | 31st March 2022 | ‘Pilot study Starčevo hut’ A new micro-archaeological approach for understanding stages of sedentism in the Balkan Neolithization process | € 3.000,00 |