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With its "Artificial Intelligence" funding initiative, the Volkswagen Foundation is strengthening interdisciplinary and transnational research into the responsible further development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It is now funding seven project consortia from the social and technical sciences with a total of 9.8 million euros in this context.

As the covid crisis has shown: If scientific arguments are to be taken seriously in the public discourse and subsequently acted upon, researchers must make a greater effort to master the rules of today’s mediatized society. The following is a subjective situation report in five sequences.

With special funding, the Volkswagen Foundation offers researchers who have fled Afghanistan the chance to continue their work in Germany. This is made possible by additional funds for funded projects and further fellowships at the Academy in Exile. A total of up to 2.9 million euros will be available for this purpose.

With 15 million euros, the Foundation is funding four centers for science of science communication. An interview about qualification criteria and the contribution to a highly topical field of research.

As nationalist forces increasingly strain Europe's cohesion, the "Challenges for Europe" funding initiative brings together partner research institutions from East and West. The variety of topics in this open call for proposals is great: It ranges from AI-assisted asylum policy and civil movements to strategies against social polarization.

What lessons can be learnt from the pandemic? How must research and the science system change to become more resilient? Professor Johannes Schöning and Dr. Georg Schütte exchanged ideas about possible solutions.