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.
We provide support in four profile areas
Funding portfolio
We support future-oriented topics with our funding offers.
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Momentum – Funding for Recently Tenured Professors
Learn moreThe 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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Data Reuse – Additional Funding for the Preparation and Storage of Research Data (Open Science)
Learn moreThe funding offer aims at grantees of the Volkswagen Foundation, eligible are current projects and projects that have been funded approximately in the last 6 months.
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area of research: all
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funding for: preparation and storing of research data for its reuse
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zukunft.niedersachsen: Lower Saxony Professorship
Website zukunft.niedersachsen.deThe "Lower Saxony Professorship" addresses exceptional academics who are professionally excellent and have several years of (management) experience in the science system. They are expected to have the capacity to shape the profile and structure of their university location and impact the research region at large.
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area of research: all
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type of funding: professorship, additional resources
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Transdisciplinary Approaches to Mobility and Global Health
Learn moreThe call is directed at researchers from HICs and LMICs, in close collaboration with local communities, non-academic stakeholders and other relevant actors. It is jointly initiated by the three independent private foundations Novo Nordisk Foundation (Denmark), Wellcome (Great Britain) and Volkswagen Foundation.
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areas of research: social sciences, life & health sciences
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funding for: international collaborative projects
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Pioneer Projects – Impetus for the German Research System
Learn moreThe funding offer addresses active researchers who, in addition to their research activities, would like to explore a project idea for the further development (of a specific area) of the German research system, as well as academic administrators at universities and research institutions in Germany.
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area of research: all disciplines
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type of funding: Innovative pioneer projects aiming at improving the (German) research system
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Open Up – New Research Spaces for the Humanities and Cultural Studies
Learn moreThe funding initiative addresses teams of two or three researchers who aim to explore new and original research spaces.
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area of research: humanities and cultural studies, theoretical social sciences
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type of funding: research projects; funding of a teaching substitute
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zukunft.niedersachsen: Research Cooperation Lower Saxony – Israel
Website zukunft.niedersachsen.deFunding is provided for scientifically outstanding projects conducted jointly by researchers from Israel and Lower Saxony.
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area of research: Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering Sciences (call 2026)
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type of funding: research projects
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Researching Research: Collaborative Research Projects
Learn moreThe funding scheme is aimed at scientists and scholars of all career stages from postdoc onwards who work on issues related to research on research. The Foundation promotes interdisciplinary, multi-method and internationally oriented research projects.
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area of research: disciplines conducting research on research
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type of funding: research projects | current call: 'Political influences on epistemic practice'
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