STAEDTLER Foundation

Focus on innovative research ideas

‘Ideas and knowledge are the key to the future’ – this is the guiding principle of the STAEDTLER Foundation, which has been supporting the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region for over 20 years. The charitable foundation has since donated more than ten million euros for cultural and research projects.

The STAEDTLER Foundation is particularly active at FAU. To give just two examples, the Foundation funds a doctoral thesis award worth 3,500 euros for ten young researchers for outstanding academic achievements every year and finances 12 ‘Deutschlandstipendium’ scholarships annually. In addition, it provides funding for research projects that pursue innovative solutions or use new methods, no matter the subject area.

Funding for excellence in research

The STAEDTLER Foundation is now placing special emphasis on funding the most innovative research projects. The Emerging Fields Initiative (EFI), launched in 2010, has a key role in successfully identifying these projects at FAU. During this highly-competitive evaluation process, the University draws on the expertise of its own staff as well as the expertise of high-ranking international researchers. At the end of the process, only those projects that show a particularly high level of potential for further development are successful. The STAEDTLER Foundation uses this ‘seal of quality’ to specifically support innovative research ideas which are of considerable importance to society. After successfully completing a pilot phase in 2018, the Foundation has invested over 500,000 euros in projects with the seal of quality. This funding is being continued in 2021 due to the very promising research findings.

As the focus during the last few years was on emerging research fields, or ‘uncharted’ scientific territory, funding from 2021 onwards will focus on excellent fields of research, in other words initiatives that have proven to be sustainable, have developed quickly and are competitive on an international level.