Twice a year - at the beginning of each semester in April and October - the Volkswagen Foundation offers a free, one-hour live webinar in English on the funding portfolio. The next webinar is scheduled for April 15, 2025, 10:30 to 11:30 am.

Physicist Felix Lang discovered the self-healing powers of a soft semiconductor. He now wants to use it to improve the production of electricity in space, make solar power cheaper here on Earth, and help X-rays to produce less radiation and better resolution – in colour!

For calls with a cut-off date falling after January 1, 2025, researchers who submit applications for project funding can at the same time apply for funds to improve equal opportunities and diversity in their project. Such funds can be used for measures such as childcare, support for people with physical disabilities, awareness-raising workshops, and coaching.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, the Kampala-based researcher Peter W. Olupot has spent the last decade finding ways to produce affordable water purification systems using rice husks, a common byproduct of rice production.

Human societies transform the natural environment around them. If this impact is negative, it can increase infectious disease risk. Epidemiologist Joacim Rocklöv believes changing human behavior is critical to preventing pandemics from happening in the future. 

Lower Saxony's Science Minister Falko Mohrs takes over as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Volkswagen Foundation, Germany's largest private science funding organisation. The federal cabinet and the state government of Lower Saxony have appointed a total of three new members to the foundation's highest decision-making body.