About the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was founded in 1860 in Berlin (re-founded in 1953 in Bonn). The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation promotes academic cooperation between excellent scientists and scholars from abroad and from Germany. The Foundation's research fellowships and research awards allow them to come to Germany to work on research projects they have chosen themselves together with a host and collaborative partner.
There are no quotas, neither for individual countries, nor for particular academic disciplines. The selection committees comprise academics from all disciplines and they make independent decisions, based solely on the applicant's academic record. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports people, not projects.
Once a Humboldtian, always a Humboldtian. Even after the first research stay has come to an end, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation still maintains close links to the alumni of its fellowship and award programs. The Foundation thus offers a wide range of sponsorship opportunities. The fellowships the Foundation grants to German scientists enable them to collaborate as guest researchers with host Humboldtians abroad and to hence equally benefit from the international network.
As an intermediary organisation for German foreign cultural and educational policy the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation promotes international cultural dialogue and academic exchange.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation annually enables more than 2.000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in Germany The Foundation maintains a network of more than 24,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in over 130 countries worldwide - including 40 Nobel Prize winners.
Further information about the foundation are available here.