Since its establishment in 1961, the Volkswagen Foundation has supported research cooperation between Israel and Germany in a variety of ways. Within the framework of the “Niedersächsisches Vorab”, a research funding programme of the State Ministry of Science and Culture, the Volkswagen Foundation has been funding Lower Saxony-Israeli projects with annual calls for proposals since 1977. Priority partners in Israel are the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion in Haifa.
The Bertelsmann Foundation’s activities in Israel focus on meetings and exchanges between young leaders. To this end, the German-Israeli Young Leaders Exchange was launched in 2000 with the goal of initiating and supporting forward-looking dialogue and cooperation between younger German and Israeli leaders. The Bertelsmann Stiftung also cooperates with the German-Israeli Future Forum.
The Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, based in Cologne, was founded in 1959 and is the first large private science-promoting individual foundation to be established in the Federal Republic of Germany after the Second World War. The foundation offers scholarship and exchange programmes with Israeli institutions, supports projects by Israeli researchers as well as scientific conferences and lecture series in Israel and the participation of Israeli researchers in corresponding activities in Germany. The funding focus is on the humanities.
The Heineman Foundation awards two scholarships annually to young researchers at Max Planck Institutes and at the Israeli Weizmann Institute of Science. Funding is provided in the fields of biology, medicine and biomedicine. Each of the two scholarships includes 80,000 euros. In addition, the James Heineman Prize is awarded annually to a young researcher at a Max Planck Institute or the Weizmann Institute of Science. The prize is endowed with 60,000 euros.
The Association of German Foundations provides information on the activities of German foundations.
