The foundation is funding research projects involving several individual projects and/or research institutions in Berlin as well as scientists working in Berlin. It also offers a special postdoc programme.
Postdoctoral researchers (professors, lecturers, postdocs) can apply to Fulbright Germany for a travel grant in the research and teaching program all year round. Three to twelve month teaching or research stays in all disciplines at scientific institutions in the USA are funded. You can apply at any time - at least six months before your planned departure for the USA.
The foundation is focusing on humanities, medicine and natural sciences and promotes young postdoc scientists.
The foundation runs several fellowship programs for young managers and young leaders in science. The two-year program “Fast Track”, for example, is addressing female postdocs pursuing a career in academia and aims at teaching them the necessary skills to plan their careers strategically.
Each year, the foundation is awarding up to ten fellowships for postdocs in the natural sciences, engineering, and the humanities, who would like to focus on interdisciplinary topics dealing with import social, cultural, political or economic issues.
The Volkswagen Foundation promotes junior scientists in various disciplines, f.x. with a postdoc funding programme for humanities scholars, with the Ewald fellowships postdocs within Free-Electron Laser Sciences (last call in 2015) or with the funding initiative "experiment" which supports new research concepts in science and engineering, as well as in the life sciences.
By securing funding for their own research project, particularly qualified postdoctoral researchers pave the way for the next stages of their increasingly independent research career and exercise autonomy. The programme thus promotes early research careers with the aim of fostering the mobility and thematic development that are crucial in this career phase; therefore, the programme generally requires that the applicant change his or her research institution.
Only postdoctoral researchers at an early career phase are eligible to apply to this programme. The project may not be based at an entity that is for-profit or that does not permit the publication of findings in a generally accessible form.
Proposals may be submitted at any time.