Freigeist Fellowships: 12.2 million euros for nine exceptional research personalities
Nine early career scientists have been awarded prestigious Freigeist Fellowships for their daring projects. A Freigeist Fellowship offers creative minds maximum freedom and a clear time perspective for their research.
The Foundation develops a radical new take on the future: and asks its researchers to do the same. A talk on strategy with Georg Schütte and Henrike Hartmann.
Green light for 15 projects under the global call for interdisciplinary research on "Mobility – Global Medicine and Health Research". The following interview surrounds first experiences with a funding offer that has unintentionally become topical in the wake of the corona pandemic.
Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future: 12 million euros of funding
The Volkswagen Foundation has approved a total of around 12 million euros for eight interdisciplinary and international research networks in the social and the engineering sciences that share an integrative focus on the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and society. The aim of this funding initiative is to strengthen interdisciplinary and trans-national research on socially responsible approaches to the further development of AI systems.
When science fails: "You might as well spare yourself the effort!"
Science, too, has its share of failures and mistakes. But nobody likes to talk about it in public. The Journal of Unsolved Questions takes a completely different approach. It publishes zero results.
Quality assurance is and remains absolutely indispensable for science. However, the limitations of peer review are becoming increasingly evident. New approaches are therefore urgently needed – such as the partially randomized selection of projects by lot.
Wolfram Pernice is researching how computers based on neural networks could in future compute even faster and more efficiently – using light instead of electronics. And real nerves instead of optical fibres.
Marine scientist Dr Christina Roggatz from the University of Bremen is leading her own team for the first time – and through her work wants to arrive at a better understanding of climate change. Here she gives us an insight into her everyday life as leader of a junior research group.
