Klaus Tschira Foundation
| Klaus Tschira Foundation (KTS) |
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| legal form | Profit company |
| founding | 1995 |
| founder | Klaus Tschira |
| Seat | Heidelberg |
| purpose | Promotion of natural sciences, mathematics and computer science |
| Managing directors | Carsten Könneker , Beate Spiegel |
| Foundation capital | 4,091,000,000 euros (2018) |
| Website | www.klaus-tschira-stiftung.de |
The Klaus Tschira Foundation (KTS) is a German non-profit organization with the legal form gGmbH for the promotion of MINT subjects . It was founded in 1995 by the physicist Klaus Tschira and headed by him until his death in 2015. With equity of around 4 billion euros, KTS is one of the largest foundations in Germany.
Areas of activity
The organization wants to support kindergartens, educational and research institutions in the development and comprehensible and clear presentation of research results. The aim is to awaken a “fascination” for the natural sciences in people at an early age, to conduct research for society and to make science understandable for laypeople. Projects are also funded upon request. The organization is accordingly involved in three main areas:
- education
- research
- Science communication
- in selected cases architecture for science.
With the International Peace Prize Dresden Prize , the organization honors special achievements in the fight against armed conflicts, violence and escalations.
Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
In 2013 the Klaus Tschira Foundation established the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF). This organizes the annual Heidelberg Laureate Forum, a network meeting that brings together the winners of the most prestigious awards in mathematics and computer science with outstanding young researchers in these fields. Another focus of the HLFF is to draw public attention to the disciplines of mathematics and computer science, to arouse interest in them and to strengthen them sustainably. In their Mathematics-Informatics Station (MAINS), which opened in 2017, there are activities for all age groups throughout the year.
Activities in the field of education
The KTS wants to give impetus to promote the enthusiasm and curiosity of adolescents for natural phenomena .
Research station
Explore Science
Since 2006, the organization has been organizing “scientific adventure days” in the Luisenpark Mannheim (since 2018 also in Bremen ). These are intended to give children and young people the opportunity to discover scientific phenomena and to arouse young people's interest in scientific subjects and to promote networking between scientific institutions and schools.
Youth presents
With the Youth Presenting project , the KTS promotes the skills of students in the presentation of knowledge. Training, competition and communication are the main pillars of the project. It provides teaching material designed by scientists and teachers and trains teachers in seminars. Grade 8-10 students Grade levels can participate in the annual student competition after preparation in class.
Youth presents emerged from the youth software award. Every year from 2001 to 2011, this honored schoolchildren who had developed excellent learning software or presentations in digital form in order to clearly present scientific and mathematical findings. The project ended with the tenth award in January 2011.
Research activities
Another aim of the work is to apply research results for the benefit of society. That is why the organization promotes young scientists, conducts its own research and supports projects from other institutions. In doing so, she mainly supports projects she has initiated herself.
Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies
In January 2010 the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies was opened as the successor to EML Research (European Media Laboratory) founded in 2003. The sister institute of the application-oriented EML pursues long-term goals in basic research that should not be subject to any scientific fashion trends. The working groups conduct research in the areas of life sciences , scientific databases and computational linguistics , theoretical astrophysics, statistical methods and computer science. In the future, up to ten research groups will be represented at HITS. The institute pursues an interdisciplinary, cooperative approach.
Klaus Tschira Laboratory
The Klaus Tschira Laboratory for Physical Age Determination is an institution of the Reiss Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim and an affiliated institute of the University of Tübingen. Here, humanistic considerations on the temporal classification of works of art are checked with the help of scientific investigations such as radiocarbon dating .
Activities in the field of science communication
In order to promote understanding of the natural sciences, the organization supports journalists and scientists in learning communication skills in this area.
Plain text
The Klaus Tschira Prize for Understandable Science was the first operational project. Since 2017 the award has been called “KlarText - Prize for Science Communication”. For the competition, the organization is looking for young scientists who have written a very good doctoral thesis and are interested in explaining to a non-scientific audience what they have researched. To do this, they submit a generally understandable article in German.
All scientists who wrote a doctoral thesis in biology, chemistry, computer science, geosciences, mathematics, neurosciences or physics in the previous year of the call for applications can apply.
In the pre-selection process, prospective editors from the German School of Journalism in Munich review the submitted work and recommend two-thirds of the texts for the next round of juries. The remaining articles then go to the technical examination. For this purpose, each text is read by two scientists from the respective subject. Your main focus is initially on professional quality. Above all, they also check whether the article is really about one's own research performance and whether it describes general principles.
In the end, a few dozen contributions remain, which are scrutinized by the eight-member language jury made up of scientists and journalists. In each of the categories, they select the contributions that they consider to be the most rewarding. You submit rankings, discuss them in a jury meeting lasting several hours and finally choose the final winners.
National Institute for Science Communication
From 2001 to December 2012, the KTS organized communication training for scientists under the title “Say it clearly”.
In 2012 the organization founded the National Institute for Science Communication with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology . The institute trains scientists and students in communication with the public and is intended to promote dialogue between scientists and journalists.
Science Media Center Germany
In 2015 the organization founded the Science Media Center Germany (SMC). The SMC is intended to promote versatile, competent and also critical reporting on science-related topics in the media, regardless of particular interests. The non-profit organization is run by science journalists. The Science Media Center Germany is located in Cologne and launched its range of products and services for journalists in spring 2016.
Architecture for science
The organization funded the construction of the Advanced Training Center for the European Molecular Biology Laboratory , the House of Astronomy and the Mathematikon in Heidelberg, the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Center at the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory in Garching near Munich and the “Tschira Forum” event hall at Main site of the Technical University of Munich .
See also
- Klaus Tschira Competence Center for Early Science Education gGmbH
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Management. In: www.klaus-tschira-stiftung.de. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
- ↑ List of the largest charitable foundations. In: www.stiftungen.org. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
- ^ Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation
- ↑ Klaus Tschira Foundation gGmbH: explore science. Retrieved April 6, 2018 .
- ↑ Website Science Media Center Germany (German)
- ↑ Tschira Forum opens - new event hall in the “Thiersch Tower” of the Technical University of Munich - Klaus Tschira Foundation. Accessed June 24, 2019 (German).