Activities

The focus of the Minna-James-Heineman Foundation is on supporting research projects that not only promote scientific progress but also foster international cooperation. This is achieved in particular through joint projects in the life sciences research arena carried out by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) of Germany, Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) of Israel, and Heineman Medical Research Centers (HMRC) of the United States.

The foundation also issues two awards, namely the bi-annual James-Heineman Research Award which is awarded every other year in an amount of €60,000 and the Dannie-Heineman Award, which is also issued every other year and amounts to €30,000. While the former is given to one of several young scientists in the life sciences arena proposed by the MPF, WIS and HMRC research institutes, the latter is awarded to one of several scientists of international renown proposed by a committee of the Göttinger Akademie der Wissenschaften (Göttingen Academy of Sciences). Several of these award winners have subsequently been awarded the Nobel Prize.

The Foundation's program is rounded off by support for several small projects in the Hanover region of Lower Saxony, which is where the founder studied and where the Foundation is based.

Annual Grant Volume

€50,000 to 500,000

Sponsorship

Cooperation

The focus of the Foundation's activities is the sponsorship of individual research projects. This sponsorship is carried out in cooperation with scientists of the Max-Planck Gesellschaft (MPG), the Weizmann Institute of Science ( WIS) and/or the Heineman Medical Research Center (HMR). The support of scientific cooperation between institutions in Israel, the U.S. and Germany resulted from James H. Heineman's reflections, which, on the one hand, did justice to the founder's intentions, and, on the other hand, considered the fact that international cooperation can achieve the necessary momentum to advance the wellbeing of the general public with biochemical and medical research.

It is precisely in these areas that international research and the exchange of experiences are a precondition today for success in science. James H. Heineman addressed this last point when he dedicated a laboratory at the Weizmann Institute that was named after his father, Dannie.

"Were he standing in my place, ... (my father) would say that people can no longer escape people; and that borders erected in the name of the sanctity of nationhood only perpetuate human folly by hindering international cooperation and the peaceful pursuits of man."

Project sponsorship is prepared and executed on the basis of a special coordination procedure that is overseen by the Minerva-Stiftung-Gesellschaft für die Forschung mbH, founded as an auxiliary institution of the Max Planck Gesellschaft.

The Dannie Heineman Award

In 1961, the Foundation's board resolved to set up a high profile science award to honor the founder, and did this with his consent. Scholars of international reputation, preferably scientists, are selected and honored with the award. According to the Foundation's board chairman of the time, Dr. E. Nain, selection should be done "assuring the greatest possible objectivity." The Foundation sought the necessary expertise to identify a suitable awardee at the suggestion of Nobel Prize winner Max Born at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. With then academy President Oskar Glemser and the Managing Secretary Karl Julius Hartmann, an agreement was reached on the granting, endowment and ceremonial conferral of the Dannie Heineman Award.

In early 1962, the Göttingen Academy chose physicist James Franck as the first recipient of the Dannie Heineman Award. Franck was the first in an impressive series of international awardees, each of whom had significantly influenced his branch of science. From the start, the intention was to honor young scholars and thus bring early attention to very promising researchers. When a new agreement on the granting of the Dannie Heineman Award was reached in 1990, the objective was expressly laid down:

"It should be awarded, whenever possible, to active young scholars for recently published and outstanding work, especially one that is on new and urgent developments in science. To be given particular consideration are works in the area of the natural sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology). However, the humanities can also be considered."

The award is endowed with € 30,000. With a division of the award amount, in addition to the awarding of the researcher, scientific sponsorship is to be pursued. Thus, the awardee receives € 20,000 to be used at his discretion. In addition, € 10,000 is made freely available to him for projects with scientific ends. With this money, the awardee can finance symposiums, remunerate scholarship recipients, pay for travel costs, or pur-chase technical books and working materials.

With the Dannie Heineman Award, the Göttingen Academy has seized the opportunity to give prominence early to important developments in all areas of the natural sciences and sponsor very promising researchers. Seven of the awardees have also received the Nobel Prize.

The Dannie Heineman Award is bestowed every two years. The bestowal of the award is announced during ceremonies at the Göttingen Academy's public annual meeting.

The Grants

Grants for Doctoral Candidates

In memory of founder Dannie N. Heineman, the Minna-James-Heineman Foundation has been running a grant program in his name since the end of 1962 at the University of Hanover. The first Dannie Heineman Grant for Doctoral Candidates was awarded to a Turkish graduate engineer who was preparing his dissertation at the Institute for Electric Machines.

The object is to support German or foreign doctoral candidates at the University of Hanover who are working on advanced qualification research projects in the technological or natural sciences.

In memory of the career of the founder, sponsorship is preferably in the area of electrical engineering and information technology. Primarily, the grant covers the cost-of-living expenses of the recipient during his scientific work and education.

The grant allowances are adapted to the rates of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Group). One person can be sponsored for a maximum of three years.

Selection of the most suitable candidates is the responsibility of the University of Hanover through the Friends of the University of Hannover. Applications are placed with the Friends of the University of Hanover.

The Study Grant

Mit Hilfe dieses Stipendienprogramms, das ebenfalls den Namen des Stifters trägt, sollen amerikanische Studierende von technik- oder naturwissenschaftlichen Fächern an der Universität Hannover gefördert werden. Ein ähnliches Stipendium hatte es Dannie Heineman einstmals ermöglicht, an dieser Hochschule Elektrotechnik zu studieren. Die Stipendiaten werden von der jeweiligen amerikanischen Universität nach deren eigenen Kriterien ausgewählt und für einen Aufenthalt an der Universität Hannover nominiert. Die offizielle Verantwortung des Stipendiums und die Betreuung des Stipendiaten erfolgt beim Akademischen Auslandsamt der Universität Hannover.

The James Heineman Research Award

In 1996, the Foundation decided to grant an award in memory of James Herbert Heineman, who died in August of 1994. In recognition of outstanding research work in the biological and medical sciences, the award is granted to scientists with academic degrees (e.g. PhD or MD) who do not yet hold a professorship.

The award is granted to scientists working at the Max Planck Gesellschaft, Germany, the Heineman Institute of Cardiology in Charlotte, North Carolina, or the Weizman Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Conferral of the award takes place at one of these institutes every second year on a rotating basis. The award amount is €60,000 and is to be used by the recipient at his discretion for research projects of his choice, but not for personal expenses.

Candidates for the award are nominated by committees formed at the individual institutions. The selection is made by the Foundation's Coordination Committee.

Coordination of the selection process and payment of the award to the candidate is done in the Foundation's name through the Minerva Foundation, a branch of the Max Planck Gesellschaft.

The Heinemanhof in Hannover

The Chairman of the Foundation's board has a € 10,000 specially endowed fund available, from which he supports non-profit institutions in the Hanover area.

In recent years, the Heinemanhof nursing home, which is now located at the former headquarters of the Foundation, has been supported.