“Make a Donation, Create Knowledge” Project

The University of Foundation supports researchers in finding solutions for challenges in society. To mark the University’s 50th jubilee, the project “Make a Donation, Create Knowledge” (“MACHT SINN. Stiften gehen, Wissen schaffen” in German) will begin.

“We want to win over more people who have a passion for the uni foundation,” says the politician Dr. Helga Trüpel. Together with the Director of Finance and Administration Frauke Meyer and the Bremen lawyer Dr. Jens-Uwe Nölle, she is a member of the new board. From today, May 31, 2021, it is possible to better get to know the foundation with the “Sinnstifter” podcast trailer at www.uni-bremen.de/machtsinn. In the podcast, they tell us what the uni foundation does for Bremen, how Bremen’s citizens can get involved, and what other plans the management board has.

“The moving thing about donating is that you give money, yet become richer”

In the coming podcasts that will go online on Wednesdays every 14 days from June 2, onwards, the sponsors take the listeners on an exciting journey from initial decision making to the actual establishment of their foundation, as well as explaining the vision that they have. And they reveal what they get from it all. “The moving thing about donating is that you give money, yet become richer,” explains Dr. Rita Kellner-Stoll from the eponymous trust foundation. Moreover, those who receive funding from the foundation tell us what effect the support for their projects has had on their specialist qualifications. But also if they think that the opportunities that they received in this way have changed them as people in the long term.

All podcasts will be communicated via the University of Bremen’s social media channels and are available at www.uni-bremen.de/machtsinn, as well as via the Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Deezer streaming services. The ten podcast portraits will also be published in a book. Said portraits will cover: Dr. Rita Kellner-Stoll, Charline Wolff, former senator Manfred Fluß, PD Dr. Cordula Weissköppel, Axel Schubert, Sylvia Jürgens, Khaled Swaidan, Professor Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Professor Rolf Drechsler, and Professor Helga Grubitzsch.

Special Event Planned for the Fall

In the fall, the project and the relationship between giving and supporting are to be made tangible. This is why a special event is planned to take place at the House of Science on November 1 - if the pandemic allows for this. At an open allocation meeting, the public is to be able to help decide which projects will receive funding. Additionally, at the House of Science researchers want to present the research projects funded by foundations as part of the “Wissen um 11” series.

Invitation to All to Donate

The “Make a Donation, Create Knowledge” campaign wants to win over further interested parties. Under the motto “Become a sponsor today and create knowledge for tomorrow,” everyone is invited to make a small or large contribution to science.

About the Foundation’s Management Board

Since January 2021, Frauke Meyer has held the position of Director of Finance and Administration at the University of Bremen and is thus automatically the chairwoman of the University of Bremen Foundation management board. “It is an unbelievably pleasurable area, which I happy to manage,” she states.

Dr. Helga Trüpel studied at the University of Bremen between 1977 and 1984. As a politician, she was active with the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen party in Bremen and on the European level. She was additionally the Senator for Culture and Integration of the Free Hanseatic State of Bremen for four years. Since October 2020, she has been an active member of the University of Bremen Foundation management board. “As a graduate of the university, its further development is a matter close to my heart,” says Trüpel. “I am elated that I am able to accompany and shape said development thanks to my role on the management board.”

The newest member is Dr. Jens-Uwe Nölle: “I am a lawyer in Bremen and completed my PhD at Bremen’s uni in the 1990s,” he explains. “Since then, I have remained connected to the university and am pleased that I can accompany this with my expertise.” Nölle became a board member in March 2021.

The three new management board members took over from the former university Director of Finance and Administration Dr. Martin Mehrtens, Professor Helge Bernd von Ahsen, and Professor Heiko Staroßom. The three former members held their roles from the establishment of the foundation and from the start of the previous Director of Finance and Administration’s term in office until the end of 2020.