Volkswagen Foundation continues funding RHET AI until 2029

The Volkswagen Foundation will continue to fund the Tübingen-based RHET AI Center – Center for Rhetorical Science Communication Research on Artificial Intelligence – until 2029. The Foundation announced this in early July 2026. The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) will become part of the Center. It will play a central role and lead a research unit dedicated to the empirical study of communication with AI.

How AI is transforming science communication

RHET AI investigates how artificial intelligence influences science communication. In the first funding phase, the focus was primarily on public perceptions, narratives and debates surrounding AI. The focus is now shifting more strongly towards how people use AI to find information about scientific topics – and how AI itself may contribute to communicating scientific findings in the future.

The IWM’s contribution to RHET AI

“Artificial intelligence is not only changing how scientific information is disseminated. It is also changing how people search for information and how they understand it. This is why it is important to investigate how AI can meaningfully support science communication,” emphasises Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress, Director of the IWM. The IWM labs Knowledge Construction and Perception and Action are involved. “We are delighted that the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien is joining the RHET AI Center in the second funding phase,” says Prof. Dr. Olaf Kramer, spokesperson for the RHET AI Center. “With its empirical and experimental expertise, the IWM ideally complements our rhetorical perspective on science communication.”

Partners from research and practice

RHET AI is supported by the University of Tübingen and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In future, the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien will also be part of the Center. Other partners from research and practice include Stony Brook University, the National Institute for Science Communication, experimenta Heilbronn, Wissenschaft im Dialog, the Baden-Württemberg Adult Education Association and the Center for Human Technology.

RHET AI is one of four centers for science communication research in Germany that will receive further funding as part of the “Science Communication to the Power of Three” initiative. In total, the Volkswagen Foundation is providing around seven million euros for the second funding phase. Of this, around 2.2 million euros will go to RHET AI.