Foundation for German Humanities Institutes Abroad (DGIA)

The Foundation for German Humanities Institutes Abroad (DGIA) is a federal foundation with legal capacity under public law and is located in Bonn. It was established by federal law on 1 July 2002. The new Foundation supports the Humanities Institutes abroad which were formerly financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and worked under different legal forms.

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In line with the text of the law establishing the Foundation, its mission is to support research with a focus on the areas of history as well as cultural, economic and social sciences in selected countries, and to promote the mutual understanding between Germany and these countries. For this purpose, the Foundation supports the following research institutes in seven host countries:

• German Forum for the History of Art in Paris
• German Historical Institute London
• German Historical Institute Paris
• German Historical Institute Rome
• German Historical Institute Warsaw
• German Historical Institute Washington D.C.
• German Institute for Japanese Studies Tokyo
• Oriental Institute Beirut/Istanbul

The Institutes Abroad are centres of excellence of German humanities research. They conduct their own research and are independent in their scientific work. They train young scientists and are contact points for the science community in the host countries with their publications, science events as well as print and media libraries.

A small Foundation office is located in Bonn and supports the work of the Institutes at home and abroad. This applies in particular to cooperation between the Institutes and German universities and non-university research institutes as well as with the science institutions in the host countries. The office also promotes cooperation with the research funding and science organizations in the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union.

The Foundation is financed almost exclusively by the BMBF. However, it can also raise external funds. The Foundation's budget for 2006 is about €27 million (target), including about €26 million institution-based support by the BMBF.

The first externally funded project was the German Historical Institute Moscow which was funded by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and the ZEIT Foundation Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and opened in 2005.