studINI

The German Academic Exchange Service is one of the world's largest and most respected intermediary organisations in its field. Scores of students, teachers, researchers and scientists supported by the DAAD have been able to gain valuable experience abroad. However, there are also many other sides to the work of the DAAD.

ERASMUS is the higher education Action of SOCRATES II programme. It seeks to enhance the quality and reinforce the European dimension of higher education by encouraging transnational cooperation between universities, boosting European mobility and improving the transparency and full academic recognition of studies and qualifications throughout the Union.

ERASMUS consists of many different activities; student and teacher exchanges, joint development of study programmes (Curriculum Development), international intensive programmes, thematic networks between departments and faculties across Europe, language courses (EILC), European credit transfer system(ECTS)

The Sixth Framework Programme's Human Resources and Mobility (HRM) activity has a budget of €1,580 million and is largely based on the financing of training and mobility activities for researchers. These activities, known as the Marie Curie Actions, are aimed at the development and transfer of research competencies, the consolidation and widening of researchers' career prospects, and the promotion of excellence in European research.

The actions are open to researchers in all fields of scientific and technological research from the EU Member States, from countries associated with FP6 and from third countries.

Eligibility for the various schemes is based on research experience and expertise, not age. All levels are covered from researchers at the start of their career to world-class researchers with well-established scientific expertise. The actions are also open to business, universities and institutions active in research.

The Leonardo da Vinci Community vocational training action programme, introduced in 1994, is now entering its second phase, which will run from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2006.

Promoting a Europe of knowledge is central to the implementation of the programme, which seeks to consolidate a European co-operation area for education and training.

The programme actively supports the lifelong training policies conducted by the Member States. It supports innovative transnational initiatives for promoting the knowledge, aptitudes and skills necessary for successful integration into working life and the full exercise of citizenship, and affords scope for links with other Community initiatives - particularly the Socrates and Youth programmes - by supporting joint actions.

The broad lines of this second phase are set out in the Council Decision of 26 April 1999 (OJ L146 of 11 June 1999), which affirms the need to develop quality, innovation and the European dimension in vocational training systems and practices through transnational co-operation.

Multi-annual Community calls for proposals are planned for the periods 2000-2002, 2003-2004 and 2005-2006. The calls will set up the annual deadlines for the submission and selection of proposals and will specify particularly the priorities for these calls.

Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung (Capacity Building International, Germany) is synonymous with human resources and organisational development in international cooperation. Our service package addresses specialists, executives and decision-makers in industry, politics, administration and civil society. InWEnt works with partners in developing countries, transition states and industrialised nations, and in this way reaches some 55,000 individuals every year.

InWEnt's shareholders are the Federal Republic of Germany represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft and the German Foundation for International Development..

The German-American Fulbright Program implements Senator J. William Fulbright's visionary concept: The promotion of mutual understanding between our two countries through academic and bicultural exchange. The largest and most varied Fulbright program worldwide, the German-American Fulbright Program has sponsored over 30,000 Germans and Americans since its inception in 1952.

The defining characteristic of the program is student exchange. Academic year programs for professors, teachers, teaching assistants, and journalists; summer internship programs for students; and seminars for experts in university administration and German and American Studies complement this core program.

ELFI is a service for electronic information on research sponsoring in German. It serves a database collecting and preparing information on this topic. These are made available to researchers, research consultants, students and companies via Internet.

The Tempus Programme focuses on the development of the higher education systems in these countries through co-operation with institutions from the Member States of the European Community.

The programme is based on the understanding that higher education institutions are of particular importance for the social and economic transition process as well as cultural development; they are also pools of expertise and of human resources and provide for the training of new generations of leaders.

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation supports about 20 projects in 12 countries on four continents. We aim to generate an international and intercultural dialog to tear down mental borders and assist the birth of alternative thinking and mutual understanding.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is a non-profit foundation established by the Federal Republic of Germany for the promotion of international research cooperation. It enables highly qualified scholars not resident in Germany to spend extended periods of research in Germany and promotes the ensuing academic contacts.

The Humboldt Foundation promotes an active world-wide network of scholars. Individual sponsorship during periods spent in Germany and longstanding follow-up contacts have been hallmarks of the foundation's work since 1953

The Hans-Boeckler-Foundation of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) promotes codetermination as a principle for designing a democratic society. The HBS provides consulting services and training for elected representatives of works councils, supervisory board and staff representatives but also provides funding for some 1,600 university students. An important aspect of the Foundations work is related to academic research in various fields of study. Besides providing funding for external research, the HBS also maintains its own research institute for economic and social research (WSI). Research projects cover a broad range of issues and fields of study. Among other aspects, research topics include welfare state development, macroeconomics and European economic coordination, working time policy, collective bargaining, work organization, labor market regulation, gender studies, regional economic development, and the distribution of wealth and income.

The Körber Foundation is an independent private trust which is committed to international understanding, public welfare and social dialogue. Its main focus of activities is in the socio-political field.

Priorities, social politics, political education, international relations, science, art

The Association for the Promotion of Science and Humanities in Germany (Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft) is a major funding body for research and education in Germany.