[7] In 1937, the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (NG) ("Emergency Association of German Science") was renamed the Deutsche Gemeinschaft zur Erhaltung und Förderung der Forschung ("German Foundation for the Preservation and Promotion of Research"), for short known as the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Even before the election of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi party) to power in 1933, projects funded by the NG had worked diligently on Nazi-aligned research, especially German ethnographic research in Eastern Europe that would lay the foundations for the Hitlerite "Lebensraum" and extermination policies; during the National Socialist period, the NG leadership showed itself ready and willing to adapt to the "new era" by gearing its funding practices towards issues related to German rearmament and autarky, essentially aligning its goals with those of the new regime.

The Heisenberg Programme of the DFG is aimed at young outstanding scientists who meet all the requirements for appointment to a permanent professorship.

The programme was named after the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics at the age of 31.

The funding programme aims to enable scientists to prepare for a scientific leadership position and to work on further research topics during this time.