Pioneering Research – Exploring the Unknown Unknown
With the programme "Pioneering Research – Exploring the Unknown Unknown", the Foundation supports groundbreaking and risky research ideas with high scientific relevance. Online Q&As: 11 June and 16 July, deadline for short proposals: 27 August 2026
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: 16 Apr. 2026
This is about the future of your research area: What is the current status? What prospects are there for further development - and how can they be realised? With the "Scoping Workshops" the foundation offers space for discussion and intensive exchange. Online Q&A (in German) on 12 February, deadline: 17 March 2026.
"Momentum" Initiative Provides Funding for Recently Tenured Professors
The Volkswagen Foundation supports professors three to five years after taking up their first tenured professorship at a university in Germany. The next application deadlines: 14 April 2026 and 6 April 2027
New Funding Programme: Calling for Europe's Security Experts of the Future
We are looking for the security experts of the future: The call is aimed at young postdoctoral researchers who do research on the nexus of security and technology with a distinct European perspective. Online Q&A: 9 April, application deadline: 5 May 2026
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. Deadline: 18 November, 2026
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.
