20.03.2026
Andreas Lachner receives Momentum-grant of VolkswagenStiftung
To further develop the professorship into a transdisciplinary hub for adaptive learning
We at TüCeDE are delighted to announce a significant funding award: our Co-Director Prof. Andreas Lachner, Chair of Educational Science with a focus on Teaching and Learning with Digital Media, has received funding through the Momentum Initiative of the Volkswagen Foundation. The programme is aimed at newly appointed professors and is one of the most prestigious funding formats in the German-speaking academic world. The project is supported with approximately €950,000 over four years, with the possibility of a two-year extension.
Adaptive Learning Systems for Greater Educational Equity
At the heart of the project is the development of the chair into a transdisciplinary hub for adaptive learning. The goal is to research evidence-based adaptive learning systems and translate them into school practice — systems that provide individualised support and offer all students fair educational opportunities regardless of their background. Artificial intelligence, particularly in the form of large language models (LLMs), is considered a promising tool in this context. However, a systematic, scientifically grounded integration of these technologies into everyday school life is still lacking — and this is precisely where the project intervenes.
Transdisciplinary Collaboration at the Core
The funding enables a targeted combination of expertise from machine learning, data science, and AI with insights from educational science and practice. Drawing on big data from real educational contexts, the project aims to generate robust and generalisable findings. In close collaboration with local and international partners, an interface between educational research, subject-specific didactics, and AI development will be established. A central feature of the approach is its co-constructive process: teachers, students, and school administrators are actively involved in shaping the systems to ensure practical, effective, and scalable solutions.
The funding strengthens the international visibility of the chair and lays a solid foundation for the development of AI-supported personalised education at the TüCeDE.
We warmly congratulate Andreas on this outstanding recognition and are very proud to have him on our team. The successful acquisition of this prestigious grant is an impressive testament to his academic excellence and his commitment to forward-looking educational research. We look forward to the exciting insights and impulses this project will generate for educational practice and beyond.
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