Foundation - General
The scope of our foundation is to support science and social innovation initiatives and projects for a world with health for all and hunger for none. Cultural projects as such are not in scope of our funding activities. https://www.bayer-foundation.com/about.
No, we don’t do sponsorship to events and conferences.
No, we don’t support football associations as this is not in scope of our foundation. The scope of our foundation is to support science, social innovation initiatives and projects for a world with health for all and hunger for none.
No, we don’t donate medical equipment, disaster relief, or building infrastructure.
Social Innovation
No, Bayer Foundation supports social entrepreneurs in low and middle-income countries in the Global South.
We focus on the intersections of health, nutrition and environment, supporting innovative social businesses with impact in the Global South (Africa, Latam and APAC). We follow a data-driven strategy which drives our investments to maximize social impact. Under such strategy, specific aspects are of special interest for us:
Food security for smallholder farmers
- Reduce food waste
- Reduce malnutrition
- Fair market and price
Healthcare access and affordability
- Community health workers / Last mile health
- Health insurance and payment options
- Improve healthcare quality in rural community via digital health
Planetary Boundaries
- Extreme weather events (with health risks on vulnerable community)
- Water access and waste management (relating to health)
- Declining soil health and fertility
For all of those areas, we see special value in proposals which combine multiple of the areas above, and that help to foster gender equity. Finally, the Bayer Foundation seeks to support projects contemplating an ecosystem approach, i.e., projects that activate local and international collaborations and that are designed to leverage co-funding opportunities, in order to increase impact.
The following main goals currently help to guide our grant decisions:
| SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) | SDG 3 (Good Health and Well Being) | SDG 5 (Gender Equality) |
| Increase agriculture productivity or income for smallholder farmers | Improve access to healthcare for underserved communities | Increase income for women. Grow female-led social enterprises |
Science and Education
The Bayer Foundation solely offers fellowships for MSc, PhD, and medicine students for international placements or research activities, that are complimentary to current or future scientific studies.
Research grants are only offered in collaboration with other foundations like the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/
For PhD students, Bayer Foundation offers fellowships in drug discovery sciences, agricultural sciences and medical sciences Applicants should be doing their PhD thesis in natural science, pharmacy, data science, human or veterinary medicine, medical engineering, applied material sciences, or public health.
These fellowships are designed to enhance existing study programs (MSc, PhD, and medicine) by providing additional funding for international placements or research activities, that are complimentary to current or future scientific studies.
- Non-Germany based students must undertake fellowships within Germany.
- Germany based students must undertake placements outside of Germany.
- Fellowships cannot be undertaken at commercial organizations (i.e. in industry).
Further details on the application process and timelines can be found on our web page https://www.bayer-foundation.com/science/fellowships-stipends.
