Scientific cooperation between Germany and Israel and the Minerva Foundation

German-Israeli scientific cooperation dates back to 1959 when a delegation from the Max Planck Society, headed by its President Otto Hahn, visited the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. As a result of this visit, the Federal German Government provided DM 3 mill. for fellowships and as seed money for joint research projects with the Weizmann Institute. This initiative and the opening of the Minerva Fellowship Programme to all Israeli universities in 1973 paved the way for more than 1300 scientists from Israel and Germany to pursue their research with a Minerva Fellowship for up to two years at universities and research institutions in the two countries. Project support for the Weizmann Institute had already been institutionalized with an agreement signed in 1964 between the Minerva Foundation, a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society, and the Weizmann Institute. The Gentner Symposia have shown to be another effective tool by which cooperation between younger scientists from both countries could be successfully stimulated. Such bilateral symposia are held annually in Germany or Israel alternately focusing on the fields of Physics, Biology and Chemistry.

 

More recently, German-Israeli Minerva Schools were introduced to the programme as yet another means of helping young scientists from Germany and Israel to establish initial scientific contacts. The idea of establishing Minerva Centers dates back to the year 1975. This programme has become an important tool in fostering bilateral scientific relations between Israel and Germany and is open to all universities and research institutions in Israel. At present, there are 43 Minerva Centers and one Minerva Chair in operation covering all fields of research in the Natural and Social Sciences as well as the Humanities. Since 1964 the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and its predecessors have given DM 380 mill. to Minerva in support of these programmes. The fact that the Max Planck Society does not administrate these programmes directly, but rather its subsidiary, the Minerva Foundation, has to do with the Max Planck Society's statutes. They allow the Max Planck Society to only support research at its own institutes. Furthermore, cooperation is not limited to the Max Planck Society, but extends to all universities in Germany. As a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society the Minerva Foundation applies the Society's high scientific standards to all its programmes. Alongside the Minerva Foundation, three more recent programmes have been established: The programme sponsored by the BMBF and the Israeli Ministry for Science for joint projects (1974), the German Israeli Foundation (G.I.F.) which took up work in 1988 and the German-Israeli Project Cooperation on Future Oriented Topics (DIP) that had its first call for proposals in 1997.