Historian Andreas Fahrmeir, who was appointed to the Board of Directors in April, has been acquainted with the programme and responsibilities of the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften from the beginning. As one of the very first fellows, he worked at the Institute in Bad Homburg with his British colleague Christopher Clark in the summer of 2009. A few years later he was actively involved in founding the History Programme of the Forschungskolleg. This programme is being funded by the Dagmar Westberg Foundation for five years (2014−2018) and has also received additional funding for individual research projects from the city of Bad Homburg as well as from the entrepreneur Stefan Quandt. Fahrmeir drafted the concept of the History Programme, which coalesces around five main topics, and became its academic director.

Andreas Fahrmeir has been professor of modern history with a specialization in the 19th century at Goethe University Frankfurt since 2006. His research interests are German-British history, the history of migration and the political history of the 19th century.

Spiros Simitis is professor emeritus in the Department of Law at Goethe University Frankfurt. He has become best known for his work in promoting and establishing data protection in the Federal Republic of Germany. He was the Data Protection Commissioner for the state of Hessen from 1975 to 1991 and is the founder of the Research Centre for Data Protection (Forschungsstelle für Datenschutz) at Goethe University. As the founding director of the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, he made the Forschungskolleg into an institution that enjoys great international acclaim. As dictated by the statutes, his membership in the Board of Directors of the Forschungskolleg ended in April 2016 after his second term of office.

Further members of the Board of Directors of the Forschungskolleg are Matthias Lutz-Bachmann (director, professor of philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt), Heinz Drügh (professor of 18th and 19th century German literature and aesthetics, Goethe University Frankfurt), Rainer Forst (professor of political theory and philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt), Klaus Günther (professor of law, Goethe University Frankfurt) und Gisela Trommsdorf (professor emeritus of developmental psychology, University of Konstanz).