Our Funding Portfolio

The Volkswagen Foundation is dedicated to the support of the humanities and social sciences as well as science and technology in higher education and research. It funds research projects in path-breaking areas and provides assistance to academic institutions for the improvement of the structural conditions for their work.
Funding portfolio
We support future-oriented topics with our funding offers.
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Impetus for the German Science System: Strategic Experimental Spaces – University Development Requires Flexibility
The Foundation invites universities, in conjunction with the relevant ministries, to open and design experimental spaces to test new forms of cross-border or cross-institutional cooperation.
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type of funding: strategic projects
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aimed at: universities, ministries
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AI Research Groups Lower Saxony
As a key technology, artificial intelligence is of central importance to Lower Saxony's research system. This call for proposals combines the objectives of promoting individual scientists with the further development of AI methods and their application to existing data sets.
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area of research: computer science, artificial intelligence, application disciplines
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type of funding: research groups
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Researching Research: Summer Schools & Workshops
The program addresses scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds working on questions or topics relating to research on research.
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area of research: disciplines conducting research on research
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type of funding: summer schools and workshops
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Change! Fellowships
Our target group: Personalities from science who are researching transformation processes jointly with non-academic partners.
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area of research: all disciplines
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funding for: own position
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Opus Magnum
The funding offer is aimed at outstanding professors from the humanities and social sciences.
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area of research: humanities, cultural studies and social sciences
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type of funding: funding of a substitute professorship
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zukunft.niedersachsen: Lower Saxony Impulse Professorship
The "Lower Saxony Impulse Professorship" addresses academics approaching the end of their early career phase up to a maximum of ten years after completing their doctorate.
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area of research: all
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type of funding: additional equipment, if necessary a separate position
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Transatlantic Bridge Professorships
Funding programme for professors in the humanities and social sciences currently working in the USA who wish to work both in the USA and in Germany.
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area of research: Humanities and Social Sciences
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type of funding: Proportional financing of a professorship in Germany
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Momentum – Funding for Recently Tenured Professors
The funding offer is aimed at professors three to five years after taking up their first tenured professorship at a university in Germany.
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area of research: all disciplines
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type of funding: concepts for the broadening of perspectives
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