The Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft is a German organisation that seeks to address challenges in higher education, science and research. Its programmes and initiatives are aimed at finding workable solutions. The Stifterverband acts first and foremost as a thought leader and provides financial support to actors in academia that develop bottom-up solutions. In the context of its various programmes the Stifterverband frequently collaborates with partners from the business community. Moreover, the Stifterverband acts as a trustee for roughly 400 foundations that support a wide array of projects. The Stifterverband was founded in 1920. Its headquarters are located in Essen and Berlin. Arend Oetker, a German entrepreneur, is the sitting president since 1998. He was succeeded by Andreas Barner in the course of 2013. The Secretary General of the Stifterverband is Andreas Schlüter. Legally the Stifterverband is a private association that is financed through the donations of its 3,000 members. Major donors include large corporations Deutsche Bank, Daimler and Bosch, but also medium-sized companies and private individuals. Its board of trustees is composed of numerous current and former board and supervisory board members of the most important German companies as well as publicly financed academic research organisations. In 2011, the Stifterverband spent more than 35 million euros on its various programme activities. Nearly ten million euros went to endowed chairs at universities and universities of applied sciences across Germany. Its associated foundations gave more than a hundred million euros to a variety of institutions and initiatives.
History
Funded by the German business community, the "Stifterverband" was founded under the name "Stifter-Verband der Notgemeinschaft für die deutsche Wissenschaft," in December 1920, originally to assistant the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft, which had been founded shortly before, in October of the same year. Carl Friedrich von Siemens was the first chair of the organization, and served until 1934. In 1949, following the Second World War, it was re-founded in West Germany through the initiative of Richard Merton and Friedrich Gummert, eventually taking on its current name. Merton served as the first postwar chair, from 1949 to 1955.
The Stifterverband cooperates with major German research organisations in awarding prizes for outstanding achievements in a variety of fields. Together with the Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft it awards the Communicator-Preis for science communication. Since 1999 it awards the Erwin-Schrödinger-Preis for interdisciplinary research together with the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft as well as the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft each award a „Preis des Stifterverbandes für die Deutsche Wissenschaft“. Together with the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz it awards the Ars legendi-Preis for excellence in higher education didactics.
„Stadt der Wissenschaft“ ("City of Science")
So as to incentivise German cities and city-regions to support science and higher education the Stifterverband awards the prize Stadt der Wissenschaft. The following cities have won the award in recent years:
