Newsroom

Have your say on artificial intelligence and help shape the future of research on the topic.  Forty randomly selected citizens from Baden-Württemberg have set themselves this task. They came together over a period of several months in the Citizens' Council called ‘Artificial Intelligence and Freedom’.

Hostility towards democracy is on the rise in Germany. Yet politicians and academics pay little attention to the attitudes of a particularly important group: young voters. An interdisciplinary project in eastern Germany is determined to change that.

A small, rich minority is becoming increasingly wealthy. Eva Wegner and Miquel Pellicer ask: How does politics contribute to growing economic inequality – and whose interests do MPs actually represent?

How do democracies change in the face of global challenges? And what can science contribute to their resilience? Researchers and stakeholders outside of academia are to develop answers in cooperation projects funded by the Volkswagen Foundation for up to five years. Nora Kottmann and Cora Schaffert-Ziegenbalg present the programme.

The programme addresses transdisciplinary teams of researchers from the humanities, cultural or social sciences and partners outside of academia who jointly work on different ideas and issues relating to democracy in transition. Deadline: 9 September 2025

The growing influence of anti-pluralist parties is often accompanied by a decline in academic freedom in the respective country. This is one of the findings of the latest Academic Freedom Index (AFI). It covers 179 countries worldwide.