The funding initiative "Europe and Global Challenges" is now supported jointly by the Wellcome Trust, the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the Volkswagen Foundation.

The physicist Stefan Hell, who is associated with the Volkswagen Foundation since 2001, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He shares the prize with Eric Betzig and William E. Moerner.

630 applications have been submitted in the second round of calls. From the many outstanding proposals, the Foundation selected 19 exceptionally innovative projects in the areas of the natural and life sciences and engineering.

On September 1, four new members were appointed to the 14-member Board of Trustees of the Volkswagen Foundation.

40 years ago, the Volkswagen Foundation funded the study "Limits to Growth". To celebrate this anniversary, 150 scientists, including Dennis Meadows, one of the authors of the study, met on November 28 and 29, 2012, in Herrenhausen to discuss current and future problems of globalization.