Newsroom

News 25 September 2018

News Update: Mass E-Mailing for Events

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.

News 06 September 2018

Freigeist Fellowships: 8 Million Euro for Eight Out-standing Research Personalities

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.

News 17 August 2018

Innovation Prize for Two Africa Cooperations 

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research awards grantees of the Foundation the German-African Innovation Promotion Prize / The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing continues its commitment to Africa with the ISEE Conference

Story 15 August 2018

Like Winning the Lottery

About a chemist from Syria, who fled his country in search of peace – and found a little piece of home at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: A true story with an almost perfect happy ending.

Story 09 August 2018

The Dark Sides of Open Science

Have calls for transparency in science gone too far? German science expert Stefan Hornbostel argues that some transparency is good for science – but too much can backfire, reducing the efficiency and quality of research and eroding public trust.

News 04 July 2018

Success for Seven Fellows in the Africa Initiative

At a selection conference held in Cameroon, seven early career researchers were able to score success with their project ideas submitted under a call for proposals titled "Resources, their Dynamics, and Sustainability".

Illustration: Reproduktion von Reichtum
Story 14 May 2025

Politics and wealth: a lopsided alliance?

A small, rich minority is becoming increasingly wealthy. Eva Wegner and Miquel Pellicer ask: How does politics contribute to growing economic inequality – and whose interests do MPs actually represent?

Eine Frau, die aufmerksam zuhört
Story 06 March 2025

So that everyone can have their say: Citizens' assembly on AI research

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.