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Storm surges, rising sea levels, endangered coasts: as part of her Change! Fellowship, Dr Claudia Wolff from the University of Kiel is working with local stakeholders to find new ways of ensuring sustainable coastal protection on the Baltic Sea.

Administration without queues – this could be the outcome of Prof. Dr. Anna Maria Oberländer's 'Change!' project. Her goal: people-centred digital administration.

How do democracies change in the face of global challenges? And what can science contribute to their resilience? Researchers and stakeholders outside of academia are to develop answers in cooperation projects funded by the Volkswagen Foundation for up to five years. Nora Kottmann and Cora Schaffert-Ziegenbalg present the programme.

The programme addresses transdisciplinary teams of researchers from the humanities, cultural or social sciences and partners outside of academia who jointly work on different ideas and issues relating to democracy in transition. Deadline: 9 September 2025

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.

With the new funding program, the Volkswagen Foundation supports scientists who conduct research on transformation processes and, with the help of their network, put their knowledge into practice. Next deadline for Fellowships in revised form expected for the 2nd half of 2026.