A New Beginning for the Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Industry
Ukraine faces the challenge of rebuilding its economy. A new research project is investigating how its industrial heritage can be effectively leveraged to modernise the pharmaceutical industry and integrate it into the European market.
Women's Impact Award 2025: Three Winners Nominated
Together with "Falling Walls Female Science Talents" and the Elsevier Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation sponsors the Women's Impact Award. The shortlist of winners for 2025 has now been finalised - congratulations!
Focus on Democratic Change: Nine New Research Projects Receive Funding
The VolkswagenStiftung has granted approximately €1.6 million to support nine innovative projects addressing current democratic challenges: from digital deradicalisation strategies and democratic structural reforms to protecting museums from far-right attacks. These projects adopt transdisciplinary approaches with practical relevance.
For five years, the foundation supported projects addressing the social dimension of artificial intelligence. We look back on the successes, challenges and the question of how sustainable the initiative's impact has been – and look ahead to the future.
As a tool of science, artificial intelligence entails numerous risks, opportunities, and ambivalences. These need to be identified and classified. However, there is no revolution in sight, according to Jens Schröter.
Distributed Peer Review (DPR): New findings on the review process
Articles in the journals Science and Nature summarise recent experiences with the use of the innovative DPR method, which were presented at the Metascience 2025 conference in London.
Climate Research Using Old Ship’s Logs: the Wind Leaves no Trace on the Sea
Did a volcanic eruption in 1783 shift the tropical rain belt? Old ship’s logs could provide the answer – and also shed light on the future climate for millions of people living around the equator.
A Pharmacy From the Rainforest: Remedies for the Mind
Fabien Schultz is searching for natural materials that can be used to treat mental health conditions. To this end, he is working with indigenous communities in Uganda and Tanzania – and with monkeys.
