At a Leopoldina symposium held on December 19, 2022, the Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation Dr. Georg Schütte presented a new funding initiative. Fifty years after publication of the "Limits to Growth" report, the foundation creates a renewed geo-scientific focus on the Earth system as a whole. 

Tobias Erb of the Max Panck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology has reinvented photosynthesis – in the laboratory. His goal is to produce chemical substances with the help of sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air.

The foundation provided around 800,000 euros for the substantial and sustainable improvement of PhD training in Georgia. Ilia State University and the Rustaveli Foundation also participated in the financing of the pilot program.

Germany's largest private science sponsor celebrated its jubilee with many guests: The public was invited to join the big "Festival of Science" at Herrenhausen Palace in Hannover on October 1, 2022.