Marvin for instance, born in foundation (5)
I believe the answer is:
robot
'marvin for instance' is the definition.
(I know that Marvin the Paranoid Android is a robot)
'born in foundation' is the wordplay.
'born' becomes 'b' (abbreviation next to the year of someone's birth).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'foundation' becomes 'root' (I've seen this in another clue).
'b' inserted within 'root' is 'ROBOT'.
(Other definitions for robot that I've seen before include "Soulless worker" , "Mechanism that can move like a human" , "Automatic worker?" , "Programmed machine" , "Computer-driven entity" .)