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Twice a year - at the beginning of each semester in April and October - the Volkswagen Foundation offers a free, one-hour live webinar in English on the funding portfolio. The next webinar is scheduled for 7 October 2026, 2 p.m..

The Volkswagen Foundation is taking a key step towards improving working conditions in academia: in future, full-time positions for PhD candidates are set to become the norm in Germany. In this interview, Henrike Hartmann, Head of the Business Unit Funding, explains the new policy.

Through its "Momentum" funding programme, the Foundation creates space for new ideas within the professorship. It supports initiatives that enable professors to further develop their research and teaching and to establish new areas of focus. Current projects include biodegradable plastics, AI-supported learning in schools, and the question of how public authorities can remain effective during crises.

Through this funding programme, the Volkswagen Foundation supports radical, unconventional research ideas that lie outside the mainstream. New in 2026: Distributed Peer Review (DPR) will be used to select the best short proposals. Pavel Dutow and Theresa Kratzsch explain the process and offer tips for applicants. Deadline: 27 August; Online Q&A: 11 June and 16 July

Wolfram Pernice is researching how computers based on neural networks could in future compute even faster and more efficiently – using light instead of electronics. And real nerves instead of optical fibres.

With the programme "Pioneering Research – Exploring the Unknown Unknown", the Foundation supports groundbreaking and risky research ideas with high scientific relevance. Online Q&As: 11 June and 16 July, deadline for short proposals: 27 August 2026