Funder: Volkswagen Foundation
Due Dates (Anticipated): March 2027 (Application deadline)
Funding Amounts: Three-day workshop support, including up to €7,000 for student assistants, travel costs, and venue services
Summary: Supports expert workshops across all disciplines to assess research fields and develop shared perspectives for their future.
Key Information: Lead applicants must hold a PhD and work at a scientific institution in Germany; a position paper is required.
Description
The Volkswagen Foundation’s Scoping Workshops support collective reflection on the future of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research areas. Researchers step beyond their current projects to assess their field’s strengths, weaknesses, emerging opportunities, and academic working conditions. Workshops can explore new research areas, cooperation across fields, or strategic recommendations for science policy, funding, and management.
These are intensive work meetings, not conferences for presenting recent research results. Held at the Xplanatorium Herrenhausen Palace conference centre in Hannover, each three-day workshop brings together up to 30 participants to develop a shared position on the field’s future. A position paper documenting the findings and recommendations is an essential outcome. The Foundation provides organizational and technical support alongside funding for workshop-related costs.
