{"id":3285,"date":"2026-04-13T08:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T06:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:21:37","slug":"volkswagen-foundation-pioneering-research-apply-by-27-aug-2026-online-qas-on-11-june-and-16-july-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/2026\/04\/13\/volkswagen-foundation-pioneering-research-apply-by-27-aug-2026-online-qas-on-11-june-and-16-july-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen Foundation \u201cPioneering Research\u201d (apply by 27 Aug 2026) &amp; Online Q&amp;As on 11 June and 16 July 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"450\" height=\"112\" src=\"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/12\/Volkswagen-Stiftung.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-117\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/12\/Volkswagen-Stiftung.png 450w, https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/12\/Volkswagen-Stiftung-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2023\/12\/Volkswagen-Stiftung-220x55.png 220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>With the program &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.volkswagenstiftung.de\/en\/funding\/funding-offer\/pioneering-research-exploring-unknown-unknown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pioneering Research \u2013 Exploring the Unknown Unknown<\/a>&#8220;, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.volkswagenstiftung.de\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Volkswagen Foundation<\/strong><\/a> supports groundbreaking and risky research ideas with high scientific relevance. They are looking for basic research projects that are not dedicated to the already &#8216;known unknown&#8217;, but that strive to explore the &#8216;unknown unknown&#8217; thereby holding the potential for major scientific breakthroughs, but also for failure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Available are up to\u00a0<strong>1.3 million Euro for max. 3-5 years per project<\/strong>. Eligible to apply are\u00a0<strong>post-doctoral researchers and professors at German universities and research institutes<\/strong> (international collaborations are possible). The next deadline is <strong>27 August 2026.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Join the <strong>online Q&amp;A Session on Thursday, 11 June 2026 at 10:00-11:30h<\/strong> to learn more about the scheme. Registration is not required, the access link will be provided via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.volkswagenstiftung.de\/en\/funding\/funding-offer\/pioneering-research-exploring-unknown-unknown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">funding scheme webpage<\/a> prior to the event. Another Q&amp;A session will take place on 16 July.<\/p>\n\n\n<a class=\"wp-block-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/2026\/04\/13\/volkswagen-foundation-pioneering-research-apply-by-27-aug-2026-online-qas-on-11-june-and-16-july-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">: Volkswagen Foundation \u201cPioneering Research\u201d (apply by 27 Aug 2026) &amp; Online Q&amp;As on 11 June and 16 July 2026<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n<p><strong>Eligibility Criteria<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pioneering projects must fulfill the following criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>radically explorative basic research<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>new scientific ground<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>research off the beaten track<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>high scientific relevance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>high knowledge potential with the expectation of achieving important scientific breakthroughs or even triggering a paradigm shift<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>if successful, providing impetus for the specialist community or even beyond<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>conceptually or methodologically risky<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Projects with the following criteria are not eligible for funding:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>incremental gain in knowledge or little progress in an existing field of research<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>primarily application-oriented or aimed at translation (e. g. clinical studies)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>combination of established methods or development of methods without a scientific hypothesis<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>continuation of own work or next logical step in own research<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>overlap with the Volkswagen Foundation&#8217;s thematic funding<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>eligibility of support from other funding organizations (e. g. DFG, BMBF)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Further details on the conditions and the application procedure can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.volkswagenstiftung.de\/en\/funding\/funding-offer\/pioneering-research-exploring-unknown-unknown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the program &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.volkswagenstiftung.de\/en\/funding\/funding-offer\/pioneering-research-exploring-unknown-unknown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pioneering Research \u2013 Exploring the Unknown Unknown<\/a>&#8220;, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.volkswagenstiftung.de\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Volkswagen Foundation<\/strong><\/a> supports groundbreaking and risky research ideas with high scientific relevance. They are looking for basic research projects that are not dedicated to the already &#8216;known unknown&#8217;, but that strive to explore the &#8216;unknown unknown&#8217; thereby holding the potential for major scientific breakthroughs, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/2026\/04\/13\/volkswagen-foundation-pioneering-research-apply-by-27-aug-2026-online-qas-on-11-june-and-16-july-2026\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289,292],"tags":[295],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3285"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3288,"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285\/revisions\/3288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.uni-goettingen.de\/gauss-career\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}