What are the basic principles of life? Seven research groups seeking answers to this question will receive around 9.8 million euro from the Volkswagen Foundation. Their scientific projects focus among others on embryonic development, nerve cell activities and the conversion of CO2 into organic compounds.

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".

How may individualization find its way into care of patients with infectious diseases? This topic was discussed during the international Herrenhausen Symposium in Hanover on June 21 to 23, 2018.

Finite resources, social inequality, climate change, terrorism – the world is facing major challenges. The UN's "Sustainable Development Goals" are a contribution towards overcoming these threats. The Volkswagen Foundation, together with partner foundations in Europe, wants to underscore the role played by the sciences in reaching the SDG targets by offering a new funding scheme. Initially, support is given to international research projects on social inequality. Cooperative teams can be funded with up to 1.5 million Euro; deadline for applications is October 30, 2018.

Junior and senior grantees of the Foundation’s initiative for research in/on Central Asia and the Caucasus met to present and discuss project results

Freigeist-Fellow Dr. Laura Ewell develops a new new technique to identify brain cells within an intact functioning network. We talked to her about her research project, what fuels her curiosity and drives her as a researcher and a Freigeist.