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The Volkswagen Foundation has approved funding of around 7 million euro in the engineering and social sciences for five interdisciplinary research clusters dealing with the challenges arising from the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society. The projects range from the use of artificial intelligence as an aid to decision making in criminal justice to its effect on communication culture and AI-supported precision medicine.

The new funding offer "Change of Course – Exploring New Research Territories between the Life Sciences and Science or Engineering" supports concepts aimed at the multidisciplinary training of research groups. Teams who wish to acquire additional qualification can submit funding proposals by January 15, 2019.

In its initiative focussing Central Asia and the Caucasus the Foundation especially supports the capacity development in research and higher education in the region. In Tbilisi, Georgia, 11 postgraduates now benefit from a novel, clearly structured doctoral program.

On September 24, 2018, a cyber attack on the event-portal of the Volkswagen Foundation triggered several mass e-mailings. Personal user data remained protected.

Key criterion for becoming a Freigeist Fellow of the Volkswagen Foundation is the readiness to depart from mainstream research and dedicate oneself to ground-breaking and therefore risk-laden research. Eight early-career researchers recently convinced the Foundation's international review panel with their unconventional project proposals, which they will now implement at universities in different parts of Germany.