Newsroom

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 7 October 2026, 2 p.m..

Since 2023, Science Communication Support (Scicomm-Support) has been providing support to those facing hostility in the field of science communication. Julia Wandt has been involved from the very beginning and explains what makes Scicomm-Support unique on a global scale and the challenges she faces in her work.

In the world of the arts, people talk a lot about one another but little with one another, says Elena Korowin. The Braunschweig-based professor, who is supported by zukunft.niedersachsen, acts as a bridge between East and West, sees herself as a diplomat without a mandate, and teaches cultural transfer – despite reservations. A video portrait.

The Opus Magnum funding initiative offers outstanding professors from the humanities and social sciences the opportunity to write a larger scientific work, relieved by a teaching substitution. Online Q&As on 3 September and 26 October, deadline: 18 Nov, 2026

Mobility is a defining feature of world affairs – yet our understanding of migration is still based on outdated models. The "Aufbruch"-project by Manuela Bojadžijev and Robin Celikates draws on new research designs to use migration as a means of better understanding the transformations of our time.

Creativity is indispensable in scientific research: new hypotheses or research questions rarely arise from pure rationality. Working together with a fellow researcher, computational biologist Martin Lercher is exploring how research scientists can learn to be more creative.