07 April 2010, No. 05/2010

Joint press release by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Deutsche Telekom Foundation and the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany

New Welcome Centres Competition launched

Announcement of new round of awards for cosmopolitan universities

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Deutsche Telekom Foundation and the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft are once again recognising the work of "Welcome Centres for internationally mobile researchers." The competition, which is being held for the third time, promotes service facilities at German universities designed to support visiting researchers from abroad. Universities that have already established support structures are eligible to apply with the objective of elaborating these structures. The closing date for applications is 1 July 2010.

A jury will select the ten best concepts and award them the title of “Welcome Centres for internationally mobile researchers.” They will also receive an award amount of 10,000 EUR to be used to implement the ideas proposed. The winners will be announced at the end of October 2010. The award ceremony will be held during the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s New Year’s Reception in 2011.

In the first two rounds of the competition in 2006 and 2008, the aim was to establish service centres for foreign researchers as a new tool and thus to promote the “soft locational factors” in the international contest for top researchers. Since then, the idea has caught on, and many institutions have set up facilities modelled on the six successful Welcome Centres; foreign universities have expressed interest in the model, too. In the third and final round, the competition is addressing universities in Germany with existing facilities they would like to develop further. They will then join the network of winning Welcome Centres bringing the total up to 16.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of over 24,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 130 countries worldwide – including 43 Nobel Prize winners.

The Deutsche Telekom Foundation

was established in 2003 to promote Germany as a location for education, research and technology. With capital of 150 million EUR it is one of the largest corporate foundations in Germany. The foundation campaigns for both grass-root and cutting-edge sponsorship and is committed to improving education in the fields of mathematics, informatics, natural science and technology.

The Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany

is a joint initiative of industry to promote an internationally competitive science system. For this purpose, it receives some 32 million EUR annually in the form of donations from the member companies and sponsors as well as more than 100 million EUR in investment income from the 450 foundations served by the Donors' Association.