Newsroom

Creativity is indispensable in scientific research: new hypotheses or research questions rarely arise from pure rationality. Working together with a fellow researcher, computational biologist Martin Lercher is exploring how research scientists can learn to be more creative.

An authoritarian government can put pressure on universities and research institutions – because the state provides them with funding and regulates their organisation. In a study commissioned by the Volkswagen Foundation, legal scholar Christoph Möllers has examined where the German research system is vulnerable to political influence and how it can be better protected.

When scientific ideas are taken out of their original context, they can have unexpected effects. The Foundation supports research into such 'dual-use' effects in the humanities and social sciences. Deadline: 6 October 2026; online Q&A session on 8 September (in English).

Many non-governmental organisations (NGOs for short), such as associations and foundations, are struggling with limited resources – and with the question of why good ideas often get stuck at the pilot project stage. Change! Fellow Prof. Dr. Orestis Papakyriakopoulos from the Technical University of Munich wants to change that.

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. Online Q&As on 3 September and 26 October, deadline: 18 Nov, 2026

Design researcher Dr. Judith Dörrenbächer from the University of Siegen aims to explore how ‘smart’ technologies in public spaces can foster not only efficiency but also humanity – namely in the form of patient, impartial mediators between people.