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Liberal democracy is a basic prerequisite for a scientific landscape with independent freedom of research. But how can we protect our democratic structures? And what dangers are they exposed to? Ten newly funded research projects are dedicated to these and other highly topical questions of democracy research.

In the following statement, the Volkswagen Foundation reaffirms its commitment to the protection of democracy and academic freedom.

In the funding initiative "Open Up – New Research Spaces for the Humanities and Cultural Studies", the foundation is testing a new review process: "Distributed Peer Review". Dr. Hanna Denecke, team leader in the "Exploration" profile area, explains the experiment.

The new funding offer within the framework of zukunft.niedersachsen is aimed at professors and postdocs at universities and non-university research institutions in Lower Saxony. Funding is available for collaborative and individual projects on innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to combat rare diseases.

The call "Challenges and Potentials for Europe: Intergenerational Futures" is aimed at international research groups from the social sciences, cultural studies and humanities. Call is closed

Narratives can either drive or discourage people. Transformation researcher Karoline Augenstein is convinced of this. She wants to find out how narratives of the future can impact on the way it is shaped.