National Cooperation Partners
Akademie Schloss Solitude
With its international programmes the Akademie Schloss Solitude supports young and particularly gifted artists. Apart from those also scientists of such disciplines as Music or Arts are welcome to apply for scholarships. The Schloss Solitude is not only a place for artistic and scientific exchange, but also a possibility for young scientists and artists to retire from their daily life. This way Zukunftskolleg Fellows are given the opportunity to attend a retreat from one up to three months time.
The academy is a part of a young artists' international network including the disciplines of Architecture, Art, Design, Literature, Music and Video/Film/New Media. Within the programme art, sciences & business the academy offers young scientists the opportunity to join this network and to further develop it. By means of this programme fellows of the Zukunftskolleg also have the opportunity to find new cooperation partners.
The Academy coordinates the "Kreativitäts- und Innovationsring des Landes Baden-Württemberg" which is supported by the Landesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst. Representatives of institutions in the areas of Art, Culture and Science gather twice or three times annually in order to intensify institutional collaborations as well as the economic potential of the creative economy. Representatives of the Zukunftskolleg are invited to these meetings.
Baden-Württemberg Stiftung
The Eliteprogramm für Postdoktorandinnen und Postdoktoranden addresses outstanding young researchers. With this programme the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung supports annually around 20 postdoctoral candidates financially, who aim to pursue their research at a university within the federal state of Baden-Württemberg and who have made it their home base. A number of Zukunftskolleg Fellows have already received the institution's support.
Further, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung aims to strengthen the network among the scientists and therefore holds meetings for the participants of the Elite Programme twice a year. Since 2009 the so called Netzwerktreffen take place in cooperation with the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In order to strengthen the cooperation with the Zukunftskolleg our Fellows are welcome to join the Netzwerktreffen, even if they are not a part of the Elite Programme. In spring 2012 the Zukunftskolleg was happy to be host of one of those meetings.
Hector Foundation
The H.W. & J. Hector Foundation was founded in 1995 by Josephine and Dr. h. c. Hans-Werner Hector in Weinheim, Baden-Württemberg. As an extension to this original organisation, the Hector-Stiftung II (Hector Foundation II) was created in 2008. The foundation supports medical research, provides assistance to social programmes - especially in regard to disabled persons - and funds artistic and cultural projects. A further focus is the support of gifted young people, especially in the natural sciences and mathematics.
In this context, the Hector Foundation II finances the Hector Pioneer Fellowship of the Zukunftskolleg, which had been put out to tender for the first time in 2017. The 5-year Fellowship is dedicated to extraordinary post-doctoral researchers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields. It promotes researchers with significant work experience at the postdoctoral level aiming for a career in academia.
Hegau-Bodensee Seminar
The Hegau-Bodensee Seminar was initiated in 1999/2000 by the Ministerium für Kultus, Jugend und Sport Baden-Württemberg as a part of the educational grant for particularly talented students. It offers interested high school pupils a possibility to take advantage of further education beyond school contents. Supported by lectures, workshops and excursions the pupils tackle chosen topics in collaborating working groups. "University Day" is a fixed part of the Hegau-Bodensee Seminar which provides the chance for pupils to do research directly with scientists and experience recent research done at universities at eye level. In the last years, Zukunftskolleg Fellows held lectures and seminars in the framework of the University Day. In 2017, the topic was "Foreseeability", in 2018 "Art & Science".
Read more on the cooperation on campus.kn.
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
The yearly held Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings are a worldwide recognized forum for the exchange between generations and scientists. Young scientists are chosen from a worldwide network of academic partners in order to participate in panel discussions, seminars and other forms of communication connected to the event. This way the aspiring generation receives a unique opportunity to meet and network with Nobel laureates for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics. The Zukunftskolleg is a partner of this meeting and fellows are regularly nominated to join the event. In 2017, Roxana Halbleib (Research Fellow/Dept. of Economics) was invited to join the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on Economic Sciences.
"Manfred Ulmer-Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft" at the University of Konstanz
The foundation “Manfred Ulmer-Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft” at the University of Konstanz was founded in 1979 by Manfred Ulmer, an entrepreneur based in Spaichingen, donor to a wide variety of causes and honorary consul. The initial endowment capital was 150,000 German marks. Over the years and as the result of generous donations, the endowment capital has grown to almost 250,000 euros that are used to support and initiate projects promoting the common good.
In line with its statutes, the foundation supports the work of the university's early career researchers in the areas of teaching and research, and, to this end, also offers significant prizes and awards. The longstanding Manfred-Ulmer-Stipendium (scholarship) awarded by the foundation was used to fund the very first ZUKOnnect Fellowship in 2021 and thus to promote the work of young, talented researchers and early career researchers from the Global South.
University of Konstanz Society (UGK)
As a registered charity, the University of Konstanz Society (UGK) supports the university in various areas:
- research and teaching,
- university institutions,
- continued education and training programmes,
- international exchange among researchers and students,
- relations with the city of Konstanz and the international Lake Constance region,
- students and junior researchers.
In short, the University of Konstanz Society provides support whenever and wherever the university itself cannot. In 2021, the Zukunftskolleg established a "Bridging Fund" for the fellows of the Zukunftskolleg with funds from the UGK which enables to ease the starting conditions of fellows (with financial disadvantages) in Konstanz.
Read more on outstanding projects that the UGK was able to support over the last decades.
Volkswagen Foundation
The Volkswagen Foundation is Germany's largest independent funder of basic research. Through its funding initiative Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities at Universities and Research Institutes in Germany and the USA the foundation aims to enable postdoctoral researchers based at academic institutions in the U.S. to spend some time conducting studies at universities or research institutes in Germany. These studies can either be undertaken at a university or research institute of the candidate’s choice or at a cooperating institute. The Zukunftskolleg is one of 14 host institutions for the fellowships. In this funding initiative, the Volkswagen Foundation works closely with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York.