The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was a Germany-based research funding organization that provided fellowships and awards to support international academic collaboration and research stays in Germany, including fellowships and awards.
In this dataset, it was included because preparation of a 2021 paper on “Worldview-motivated rejection of science and the norms of science” by UWA School of Psychological Science-affiliated Professor Stephan Lewandowsky was facilitated by a Humboldt Award to the first author, Stephan Lewandowsky (working at the University of Bristol and the University of Western Australia). The Foundation’s public materials also described Lewandowsky as recognized for work on “digital-age cognitive phenomena like misinformation,“ as noted in a Humboldt Research Award announcement.
Commentary:The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s role here was limited but still notable: it helped facilitate preparation of a
paper by Stephan Lewandowsky that framed rejection of established science as concentrated in right-wing, libertarian, nationalist, and hierarchy-oriented worldviews.
That did not make the Foundation a direct actor in speech regulation, but it did mean its funding supported research that could be used to pathologize political dissent from scientific and policy orthodoxies rather than treat it as a broader social or political problem.
Its own materials also highlighted Lewandowsky’s work on “
digital-age cognitive phenomena like misinformation,“ which suggests the award carried some institutional endorsement of that line of inquiry.
Still, this looked more like an indirect and now inactive contribution through elite research funding than an ongoing campaign in Australia.
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