Research Funding

In view of the precarious food supply situation prevailing in many developing countries at the beginning of the 1960's, the Eiselen family felt challenged to do something concrete about global hunger. Both father and son Eiselen believed that this can best be achieved by supporting scientific research. In this personal engagement in the fight against hunger and poverty, both Eiselens have been pioneers at least in Germany. For many years they sponsored research activities out of their own pocket. Since 1982, the Eiselen Foundation took over this function and has initiated and supported research projects at universities appropriate to the needs of the people with food or nutritional deficits and aimed at direct measures against hunger and poverty.

The research promotion in detail:

	The biggest single activity promoted by the foundation so far has been the research program on "Applied Genetics for the improvement of World Nutrition" carried out at the University of Hohenheim between 1985 and 1997, focused on research in the fields of biotechnology and plant cultivation. The target has been to achieve higher yields and greater plant resistance against diseases and parasites through modified seeds. The contribution of the Eiselen Foundation to this research was more than 6 million Euro. The Eiselen Foundation broke new ground in this field in Germany.
	From 1998 to 2000 the Eiselen Foundation has funded together with other donors the preparation of the new special research program of the University Hohenheim "Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountainous Regions of Southeast Asia" targeted to Thailand and Vietnam.
	From 2000 to 2002 a joint project (CIMMYT Mexico/University of Hohenheim) on the subject "Efficient Management of Genetic Diversity in Wheat" is funded together with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
	In the field of training the Eiselen Foundation supports promising young scientists who are committed to finding solutions for food and nutrition problems. Students receive allowances to cover the cost of their study visits to developing countries. More than 360 young academics have been so far supported with a total sum of more than 700,000 Euro.
	Since 1982 the foundation promoted in total 570 individual research activities with more than 9 Mio. Euro.
	The Eiselen Foundation has been supporting international scientific symposia, such as the one on "Food Security - Innovations and Lessons learned", held at the University of Hohenheim in 1996. This symposium focused on problems of innovations and their adoption by farmers in developing countries. Over 200 participants from 34 countries attended the symposium, whose results have been published in a conference proceedings volume.
	A second highly recognized symposium "Sustaining Food Security and Managing Natural Resources in Southeast Asia: Challenges for the 21th Century" was initiated and funded by the Eiselen Foundation. It was held at Chiang Mai University, Thailand from January 8 to 11, 2002, jointly organized by the University of Hohenheim, Germany, the Chiang Mai University and the Kasetsart University, Bangkok. The symposium aimed at strengthening the efforts of the Asian research community on the alleviation of hunger and poverty as well as improvements in resource management.

The Eiselen Foundation continues to actively support the process of generating knowledge and its application for reducing hunger and poverty. By its example it seeks to encourage partners to join in this effort. A scientific advisory board comprises 3 recognized scientists who give scientific advice to the foundation. It also assesses the submitted research projects. Please be aware of our special support of research in the field of modern plant breeding.



The form to submit proposals as a text-file: Proposal.rft

 

© Eiselen Foundation Ulm, 2005