Changing society for the better: 28 million euros for transformative research projects
Jonas Willingstorfer für VolkswagenStiftung
Positive change is needed for a society worth living in. With "Change!", the Foundation is funding 17 projects that combine research and practical knowledge with 28 million euros – from educational equity and coastal research to AI in law enforcement.
When it comes to uncovering and remedying social injustices, science plays an important role. In its funding initiative "Change! Fellowships and Research Groups", the Volkswagen Foundation is now bringing together researchers with non-scientific partners such as NGOs, civil society networks, public authorities and small businesses to better identify the causes of problems and develop practical solutions. The researchers from the natural and life sciences, as well as from the humanities and social sciences, and their partners in practice are to become 'agents of change' and provide impetus for progress and improvement.
At its most recent meeting, the Foundation's Board of Trustees approved funding for the first time in the initiative: 11 researchers at an early career stage, together with their practice partners, will receive a total of around 19.7 million euros in funding; established researchers, also together with their practice partners, will receive funding for six "research groups" totaling around 7.9 million euros. Five projects, including ones from Munich, Kiel, Bayreuth and Münster, are briefly presented below:
MARS Mentoring for Disadvantaged Adolescents at Real Scale (Dr. Henning Hermes, ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich; Stefan Schabernak, ROCK YOUR LIFE!, Munich; approx. 1.8 million euros)
The shortage of skilled workers is a key challenge for the German labor market – 18 percent of young adults have no vocational qualification whatsoever, and among those from disadvantaged backgrounds, this proportion is up to twice as high. To improve this situation, individual mentoring programs are considered a promising opportunity. In this project, the researchers want to discuss how mentoring programs can be successfully scaled to transform the education system in Germany and promote social equality of opportunity. To this end, the research team is cooperating with a mentoring provider and conducting a randomized controlled trial with 3,000 disadvantaged young people to analyze the effects of mentoring. In addition to publications, the team wants to inform the Chambers of Industry and Commerce and political stakeholders about the recommended measures.
Become an "Agent of Change"
The media is increasingly full of gloomy news – wars, climate warming, crisis of democracy. What can be done to counteract the negative effects? The funding initiative "Change! Fellowships and Research Groups" aims to bring about social change through the findings of transdisciplinary research. Annabella Hüfler-Fick and Mona Weyrauch provide information about what researchers need to consider when applying.
RECOAST-VISION – Reimagining Coastal Flood Adaptation for Tomorrow's Baltic Sea Coast: Visionary Strategies for Transformative Coastal Adaptation (Dr. Claudia Wolff, Kiel University; Kaija Jumppanen Andersen, Danish Coastal Authority, Lemvig, Denmark; approx. 1.8 million euros)
Storm surges are becoming more and more frequent and cause extensive damage – most recently in the fall of 2023, when there were widespread floods and dike breaches in the Baltic Sea. The researchers from Kiel and Lemvig (Denmark) want to develop solutions for adapting the German and Danish Baltic Sea coasts so that they can better withstand future hazards. Using a "living lab" approach, they will develop and visualize future scenarios for the coasts and assess the feasibility, effectiveness and impact of possible measures, while also examining their acceptance. The team consists of coastal researchers, local authorities and other local stakeholders.
Bridging the Gap: Human-Centric Digital Transformation in Public Administration (Prof. Dr. Anna Maria Oberländer, University of Bayreuth; Dr. Karolina Maronna-Aigner, byte – Bayerische Agentur für Digitales Digital Process Design & UX, Munich; approx. 1.6 million euros)
The digitalization of German administrations is an important social transformation process, yet it is progressing only slowly. The researchers want to understand, promote and shape the digital transformation of public administration from a human-centered perspective, so that the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application is bridged. The scientific team will work closely and practically with byte, the Bavarian Digital Agency. They focus on co-creative development of digital innovations. The project partner will implement the findings for digital administration directly.
Personalization TrAIning in Medicine (PerTRAIN) Integrating State-of-the-Art Personalized Knowledge and Technologies into Medical Education (Prof. Dr. Mitja Back, University of Münster; Prof. Dr. Bernhard Marschall, University Hospital Münster; Dr. Ulrich Burgbacher, tapdo technologies GmbH, Münster; approx. 1.4 million euros)
What is insufficiently addressed in medical training is essential for the treatment of patients in later everyday practice: adequate communication with different patient personalities. The project team aims to close this gap, among other things by integrating AI technologies to train personalized communication in medical training and practice. The researchers want to develop psychologically meaningful personalized patient models and implement them in modern communication tools, and introduce personalization training at the national level. The latter will be done, for example, by integrating the findings into curricula, introducing online certificates, and nationwide training courses.
FAIRLEA – Fair AI Research for Law Enforcement Agencies: An interdisciplinary investigation in the context of cryptoasset forensics (Prof. Dr. Christian Rückert, University of Bayreuth; Dr. Bernhard Haslhofer, Iknaio Cryptoasset Analytics GmbH, Vienna, Austria; approx. 1.3 million euros)
The use of artificial intelligence for law enforcement offers many opportunities, but also many risks, for example for the freedom of society and individual persons concerned, as they could be discriminated against by the AI and innocently persecuted. Based on the criminal offenses involving cryptocurrencies, the researchers want to investigate under which conditions a legally compliant and ethically justifiable use of AI for law enforcement is possible. To this end, they will develop an AI that uses machine learning to track such transactions and lead to the de-anonymization of users. The technical expertise of the non-scientific partner complements the legal expertise. The project team is examining the requirements based on European and German law when developing the AI tool.
Overview of all other approved projects
- Passive solutions in self-build and incremental housing: towards inclusive socioecological transformation in rapidly urbanizing areas (Dr. Jakub Galuszka, HafenCity University Hamburg; Gema Stratico, Habitat for Humanity International, Lima, Peru; Rizqa Hidayani, Kota Kita Foundation Urban Resilience, Surakarta, Indonesia)
- Narrating Change: Transmedia Storytelling as a Catalyst for sustainable Transformation Processes in Agriculture (MEDIAG) (Dr. André Nebe, Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf; Dr. Thomas Hartmann, tamen. Entwicklungsbüro Arbeit und Umwelt GmbH, Berlin)
- (Dis)Empowered Communities: A Comparative Study of Decommissioning Nuclear Sites (Dr. Davide Orsini, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Tobias Büchner, Büchner Filmproduktion, Cologne; Jim Hamilton, The Nuclear Decommissioning, Arlington, USA)
- InfraSETS – Infrastructuring Social-Ecological Transformations in Water Management and Nature Protection in Karst Landscapes (Dr. Fanny Frick-Trzebitzky, Institute for Social-Ecological Research, Frankfurt/Main; Dr. Jutta Parnieske-Pasterkamp, Wasserverband Südharz, Sangerhausen; Miguel Angel Rubio, Reserva de la Biosfera Valle del Cabriel, Enguidanos (Cuenca), Spain; Tomislav Hudina, Association Biom (Udruga Biom), Zagreb, Croatia; Dr. Urte Bachmann, Biosphärenreservatsverwaltung Karstlandschaft Süd, Südharz)
Change! Fellowships and Research Groups
We need changes in our society and existing structures to overcome the multitude of crises we are facing today. Science is expected to uncover planetary boundaries and vulnerabilities, research fact-based options for action and help to find solutions. Thus, the Volkswagen Foundation is looking for personalities from science who are jointly with partners outside of academia researching transformation processes.
Unmasking supply chains: leveraging digital human rights investigations for corporate accountability (Dr. Lene Guercke, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Cannelle Lavite, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights e. V., Berlin)
At the Crossroads of Global Just Energy Transition: EU's Lithium Policy and Its Impact on Indigenous Communities in South America's Lithium Triangle (Dr. Javier Lastra Bravo, University of Hannover; Katrin Beckedorf, Verband Entwicklungspolitik, Hannover; Rodrigo Paillalef, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Geneva, Switzerland; Felix Gallegillos, Comunidad Lickan Antay de Toconao, Toconao, Chile)
Evaluating the Impact of AI for sustainability and public interest (ImpactAI) (Dr. Theresa Züger, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society gGmbH, Berlin; Dr.-Ing. Rolf Sohrmann, Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie Deutschland e. V., Bielefeld; Jonathan Niesel, Greenpeace e. V., Hamburg)
Technological Transformations in Migration and Asylum Governance (TETRAMAG) (Dr. Natalie Welfens, University of Duisburg-Essen; Giulia Fellin, Berlin Governance Platform- BGP gGmbh)
Planting Future: Multispecies Gardening in the Anthropocene (Prof. Dr. Michaela Fenske, University of Würzburg; Claudia Schönmüller, Bavarian Garden Academy at the Bavarian State Research Center for Viticulture and Horticulture, Veitshöchheim)
Navigating shocks and transformations in rural communities: An evolutionary resilience perspective from Central Asia (Dr. Nodir Djanibekov, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle (Saale); Tais Reznikova, The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia CAREC, Kazakhstan, Almaty)
DiCHOT – Digital Cultural Heritage of Our Time. Developing a Circulatory System for User Generated Content between the Web Archive of the German National Library and Music Education (Prof. Dr. Mario Dunkel, University of Oldenburg; Priv.-Doz. Dr. Dr. Frédéric Döhl, German National Library, Leipzig)
Film as a catalyst of social transformation (Prof. Dr. Jens Eder, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf; Dr. Nicole Zabel-Wasmuth, Planet Narratives, Berlin; Saskia Vömel, Jetzt & Morgen, Berlin; Valentin Thurn, Federal Board of Directors AG DOK - Professional Association of Documentary Film, Frankfurt/Main)