The VolkswagenStiftung "Open Up – New Research Spaces for the Humanities and Cultural Studies" funding initiative supports highly explorative, original, and multi-perspective research collaborations. The program targets complex, previously unexamined research fields that require innovative conceptual frameworks. Rather than funding incremental studies on well-known subjects, "Open Up" specifically backs high-risk academic projects where the potential failure to achieve the initial hypothesis is accepted as an inherent part of pioneering scholarship.

Eligibility

The program enforces mandatory international/German structural pairing:
- Lead Applicant Status: The Principal Investigator (main applicant) must be officially affiliated with a German university or public research institution at the time of funding administration.
- International Co-Applicants: Research teams consisting of two or three investigators can include international scholars. Professors, PhD holders, and cultural researchers from institutions in Kazakhstan and Central Asia are fully eligible to be funded as official project partners/co-applicants.
- Academic Requirement: All participating applicants must hold a completed doctorate (Ph.D. / Doctor of Sciences) and exhibit a strong tracking record in theoretical fields.
- Field Scope: Restricted to the Humanities, Cultural Studies, and Theoretical Social Sciences. Purely clinical, technical, or commercial projects are strictly excluded.

Priority Areas
- Identification of Entirely New and Complex Knowledge Spaces
- Interdisciplinary Approaches to Unexplored Cultural and Historical Phenomena
- High-Exploration Methodologies Transforming Theoretical Social Sciences