Newsroom

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. Questions about the funding programme? Visit one of our online consultation hours. Deadline: 9 September 2025

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 October 7, 2025, 1:00 to 2:30 pm.

Funding is provided for workshops and summer schools that provide opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to acquire additional expertise, methodological skills, and knowledge of ways of working that are critical to the advancement of the research field. Deadline: October 30, 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.

Science needs creativity - but there is seldom room for it in day-to-day research. The Volkswagen Foundation wants to change this with its new "Night Science" funding programme. In our interview, programme directors Franziska Rönicke and Victoria Abakumovski explain why and how unconventional thinking is supported. Online Q&A: 15 and 24 April, deadline: 5 June 2025

Rhetoric expert Anika Kaiser researches how people can make themselves heard on the major issues of our time – artificial intelligence (AI) being a case in point. She is the right person to take care that this grassroots democratic process does not remain too detached from reality: in her first life, she trained as a painter.