The M4HUMAN project is dedicated to enhancing two existing international fellowship programmes of the Gerda Henkel Foundation (GHF) by increasing the number of experienced fellows, improving the grant conditions and strengthening the trans-national mobility. One programme is in the field of historical humanities, the other one has a special focus on Islamic studies. During the M4HUMAN project calls will be published twice per fellowship programme to attract 64 experienced researchers in the field of historical humanities and 32 experienced researchers in the field of Islamic studies.The reason for selecting these two fellowship programmes for the M4HUMAN project is the high demand for fellowships in this area. The number of projects that can be awarded within the programmes’ total budget is low compared to the number of high-quality applications received, and thus, projects that obtained a very good evaluation score have to be rejected due to budgetary constraints.Thanks to the COFUND-programme applicants will have a better chance to benefit from the fellowship programmes. Due to the co-funding and thus the availability of a higher budget volume GHF will be able to significantly increase the number of fellows and improve the grant conditions. Additionally, GHF will be able to focus more on the career development of the fellows, offering complementary training courses and supporting fellows after a career break.