Daimler and Benz Foundation

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Daimler and Benz Foundation

File:Logo NEU KLEIN Daimler und Benz Stiftung.jpg
Founded	August 8, 1986
Founder	Daimler AG (formerly Daimler-Benz AG)
Legal status	Foundation under civil law
Focus	Scientific funding
Headquarters	Ladenburg
Key people	Julia Arlinghaus (chair) Lutz H. Gade (chair) Jörg Klein (managing director)
Endowment	approx. €150 million (2021)
Website	www.daimler-benz-stiftung.de
Formerly called	Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation

The Daimler and Benz Foundation (formerly Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation) is a foundation with legal capacity under civil law, established in 1986 by Daimler-Benz AG (now Daimler AG). It provides funding for interdisciplinary scientific dialog and research projects. Of particular concern to the Foundation is the promotion of up-and-coming young scientists.

The legal domicile is Stuttgart; the Foundation's head office is located in the former home of the Benz family in Ladenburg.

History

The Foundation was established as the "Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz Foundation" by Daimler-Benz AG (now Daimler AG) in 1986 to mark the 100th anniversary of the invention of the automobile – Carl Benz had applied for a patent for his "vehicle powered by a gas engine" on January 29, 1886. It is named for the company's two founders Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz. By resolution of the Foundation's Board of Trustees, the name was changed in March 2010 to "Daimler and Benz Foundation".

File:Db villabenz jes6191.jpg

The former home of the Benz family in Ladenburg is now the head office of the Foundation.

Purpose

According to its statutes, the purpose of the Foundation is to gain a better understanding of the interrelations between humans, the environment, and technology. It contributes to this objective by promoting interdisciplinary scientific dialog and research projects. With its scholarship program for postdocs and junior professors, the Foundation supports up-and-coming young scientists from all disciplines. Future-relevant research issues are investigated in various funding formats. In addition, several lecture series contribute to the visibility and acceptance of science among the general public.

Organization

The organs of the Foundation are the Executive Board and the Board of Trustees. The Executive Board comprises two members, currently Julia Arlinghaus and Lutz H. Gade. In accordance with the Statutes, the Board of Trustees comprises seven members, three of whom are appointed by the Board of Management of Daimler AG and one by the General Works Council of Daimler AG. Three further members are co-opted. The Board of Trustees currently comprises the following members:

• Markus Schäfer – Chairman, Member of the Board of Management, Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Chief Operating Officer, Daimler AG
• Michael Brecht – Chairman of the General Works Council, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Daimler AG
• Martin Faulstich – Director of the Institute for the Future of Industrial Society (INZIN), Chair of Resource and Energy Systems, Technical University of Dortmund
• Tatjana Hörnle – Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law
• Reinhard F. Hüttl – Membership currently inactive
• Wilfried Porth – Member of the Board of Management, Human Resources and Director of Labor Relations, Daimler AG
• Kurt Schäfer – Head of Group Treasury, Daimler AG

Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Werner Breitschwerdt.

Research

The Daimler and Benz Foundation regards itself as both an operational and a sponsoring foundation with various promotional formats. The "Ladenburg Research Clusters" are a focal point of the Foundation's funding. This format gives scientists the opportunity to work on topics within an interdisciplinary research network over an extended period. For this purpose, the Foundation publishes calls for applications at irregular intervals. The "Ladenburg Discourses" are a forum in which scientists and experts from practical fields discuss research topics of particular relevance to society. The discourses are open to all disciplines – topics can be either submitted by scientists or initiated by the Foundation. On a smaller scale, the Foundation also sponsors scientific conferences and research projects, often in cooperation with other foundations and institutions.

Ongoing and recently concluded Foundation scholarship projects:

1. Since 2021, the Foundation has been funding a research project in which scientists from the University of Bonn and the Cologne University of Applied Sciences are using methods of virtual reality to investigate the fundamental differences between anxiety and fear (Scientific Director: Martin Reuter, University of Bonn). Test persons fitted out with virtual reality (VR) glasses are given the task of escaping from an underground VR scenario – a labyrinth of dark passageways and research laboratories in which intimidating experiments are conducted – while carrying out specific tasks and resolving conflicts. This experimental setup is suitable for investigating the behavioral reactions of the test persons. The researchers match the results against the test persons' genetic markers and personality data. These and further investigations are intended to clarify whether differences in individual personal characteristics regarding anxiety and fear can be validated using the VR behavioral data, and whether the behavior of a test person can be predicted. The objective is to gain new biological insights into the two primary emotions of anxiety and fear and to derive therapeutical measures for the treatment of anxiety disorders, panic attacks, and phobias.
2. Together with the Werner Reimers Foundation and the Johanna Quandt University Foundation, the Daimler and Benz Foundation has been funding the interdisciplinary research project "Pleistocene Hominin Migration of Java: Multi-Scale Agent-Based Model Simulation" since 2019. Its goal is to gain new insights into the dispersal of early hominids in Southeast Asia. The research project is scientifically supervised by the Department of Paleoanthropology at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum under the management of Friedemann Schrenk. The Indonesian geologist Mika Rizki Puspaningrum is investigating the migratory movements of early hominids using a so-called agent-based model simulated on computer. This describes not only the prevailing environmental conditions under which they lived, but also the decision-making leeway available to them under these conditions. The migratory movements of the time are to be virtually recreated by means of computer-based modeling.
3. The Foundation has been funding the project "Determining the Language Skills of Children with Immigrant Roots" as a Ladenburg Research Cluster since 2014. Under the scientific management of Jörg Roche from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, a method for measuring the level of language skills among children with an immigrant background was developed that playfully and reliably determines their learning potential in German as a second language already at pre-school age. By means of an animated app, the linguistic-communicative potential of four- to six-year-old children is measured fairly, validly, reliably, objectively, and economically in a stress-free, playful environment. For this purpose, the children communicate with a virtual friend on exciting, relevant topics within the framework of authentic linguistic actions. As a result, this so-called serious game provides a precise linguistic, automated analysis of crucial elements of children's language, in order to determine where support is needed; a practicable support profile can be derived for each individual child. This innovative method has been tested and refined several times in different phases in terms of acquisitional and computer linguistics as well as IT. It is planned to be introduced in daycare centers and kindergartens in the near future.
4. 2021 saw the conclusion of the research project "AVENUE21 – Autonomous Traffic: Developments in Urban Europe in the 21st Century", funded as a Ladenburg Research Cluster. The Foundation supported an interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Vienna that investigated the question of how cities and urban societies could develop as a result of autonomous driving and how existing urban structures affect the development of automated road traffic. Throughout this project, the researchers studied international pioneering regions in which autonomous driving is already being intensively promoted. The scientists also turned their attention to automated mobility in suburban rural areas – a field of research which to date has not received much attention in specialist discourse. The scientific findings were incorporated into the revision of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) of the European Commission.

Funding

The Foundation gives special attention to promoting up-and-coming young scientists. Each year, twelve selected postdoc researchers, junior professors or heads of junior research groups receive a scholarship from the Foundation. This is intended to strengthen their professional careers, particularly during their productive postdoc phase. In this funding program the Daimler and Benz Foundation cooperates with the Reinhard Frank Foundation, which provides funds for two scholarships. The funding amounts to €40,000 per scholarship for a period of two years and can be used flexibly, for example to finance scientific assistants, technical equipment, research trips or participation in conferences. With its regular meetings of young scientists in this steadily growing network of scholarship-holders in Ladenburg, the Daimler and Benz Foundation also promotes the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas. The funding program is open to applicants from all scientific disciplines; there are no restrictions regarding subject area.

Once a year, the Foundation bestows the "Bertha Benz Prize", worth €10,000, on a young female engineer who has produced an outstanding scientific doctorate. This prize, awarded in honor of Bertha Benz (1849-1944), acknowledges pioneering spirit, courage, and visionary character and sets out to emphasize the importance of women in the engineering sciences. In 1888, together with her two sons the preeminent name-giver of this award undertook the first long-distance journey in an automobile constructed by Carl Benz. She supported her husband throughout his life with her knowledge and technical understanding. The "Bertha Benz Prize" was awarded in recent years to:

• Katrin Philipp (Technical University of Dresden, 2020)
• Almut Albiez (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 2019)
• Despoina Petousi (Technical University of Berlin, 2018) and Silvia Isabelle Budday (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, 2018)

Experiences

To highlight the value of science for the community, the Foundation promotes the exchange between researchers and the general public in various series of events:

1. Experts from science, economics, and politics meet once a year in the German capital for the "Berlin Colloquium". The topic areas covered, which are determined by the Foundation, range from current issues concerning the human-machine interface, molecular medicine, neurosciences and cultural studies, psychology, ecology, town planning, and computer science to developments in communication and management. The Foundation is open to suggestions for discussion topics.
2. In the "Bertha Benz Lecture", female scientists and experts from various disciplines and sectors speak on topics of relevance to society. On conclusion of the lecture, the "Bertha Benz Prize" is awarded for an outstanding doctorate from a female engineer. The speakers in recent years were:

   • Mechtild Rössler (Director, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2019)
   • Tanja C. Vollmer (Scientific Director of the architectural and research office kopvol architecture & psychology in Rotterdam and Berlin, Visiting Professor for Architectural Psychology and Healthy Building at the Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Munich, 2018)
   • Christiane Woopen (Executive Director, Cologne Center for Ethics, Rights, Economics, and Social Sciences of Health, 2017)

3. The lecture series "Dialog in the Museum" is staged in cooperation with Daimler AG and the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Several times a year, the Foundation invites renowned researchers and academics to speak at the Mercedes-Benz Museum about the current state of their research; this is followed by discussion with the participants. The lectures are centered on current topics, with a particular focus on economic and social implications. The speakers have included:

   • Dirk Haller: "We Are Not Alone. How Microbes in the Gut Influence Our Lives", 2020
   • Vincent Heuveline: "Algorithms & Artificial Intelligence: Genuine Progress or Just Digital Alchemy?", 2019
   • Rohini Kuner: "When a Guardian Angel Becomes a Tyrant: New Insights in Pain Research", 2019
   • Johannes Vogel: "Endangered Biodiversity? What Must Happen to Ensure We Do Not Lose Diversity of Life", 2019
   • Miriam Haidle: "Awakening of the Spirit – A New View of the Emergence of Humans", 2019

Numerous lectures can be found as audio-video podcasts on the Foundation's website or on its YouTube channel.

Publications

The Foundation supports publications that arise as a result of its funded projects or in connection with event formats that it initiates or external conferences that it sponsors. A selection of these publications can be found here:

• Mathias Mitteregger et al.: AVENUE21. Politische und planerische Aspekte der automatisierten Mobilität. Berlin 2021; ISBN 978-3-662-63354-0. (Open Access)
• Mathias Mitteregger et al.: AVENUE21. Automatisierter und vernetzter Verkehr: Entwicklungen des urbanen Europa. Berlin 2020; ISBN 978-3-662-61283-5. (Open Access)
• Stefan Brüggerhoff/Dominik Kimmel (Hrsg.): Museen – Orte des Authentischen? Museums – Places of Authenticity? (= Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz – Tagungen, Band 42). Heidelberg 2020; ISBN 978-3-948465-97-1. (Open Access)
• Hans-Jürgen Buxbaum (Hrsg.): Mensch-Roboter-Kollaboration. Wiesbaden 2020; ISBN 978-3-658-28307-0.
• Alexander Roßnagel/Gerrit Hornung (Hrsg.): Grundrechtsschutz im Smart Car. Kommunikation, Sicherheit und Datenschutz im vernetzten Fahrzeug. Wiesbaden 2019; ISBN 978-3-658-26944-9.
• Oliver Bendel (Hrsg.): Pflegeroboter. Wiesbaden 2018; ISBN 978-3-658-22698-5. (Open Access)
• Markus Maurer/Chris Gerdes/Barbara Lenz/Hermann Winner (Hrsg.): Autonomes Fahren: Technische, rechtliche und gesellschaftliche Aspekte. Berlin und Heidelberg 2015; ISBN 978-3-662-45853-2. (Open Access)

The book "Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft: Ein vertrauensvoller Dialog. Positionen und Perspektiven der Wissenschaftskommunikation heute" ("Science and Society: A Trustful Dialogue. Positions and Perspectives in Science Communication Today") aims to analyse the interaction between science, the media and the public and to look for ways to improve it. The publication was funded by the Daimler and Benz Foundation, the Körber Foundation, the Mercator Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation and initiated by the "Science and Research" working group of the Association of German Foundations:

• Johannes Schnurr/Alexander Mäder (Hrsg.): Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft: Ein vertrauensvoller Dialog. Positionen und Perspektiven der Wissenschaftskommunikation heute. Berlin und Heidelberg 2020; ISBN 978-3-662-59465-0. (Open Access)

Further publications can be found on the Foundation's homepage.

External links

• Official website
• Annual Report 2020

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