Minerva Centers

Programme Information

Minerva Centers are scientific pioneer institutions with a focus on innovative research topics in Israel and are funded by the Minerva Stiftung, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the particular host university where the Center is based. The research at the Centers is carried out in cooperation with German partners.

What are Minerva Centers?

Minerva Centers are research institutions located at the six Israeli universities and the Weizmann Institute of Science. They are designed as a long-term endeavour of a number of scientists to focus on a certain field of research rather than just on a single project. Minerva Centers deal with topics that are innovative and of special interest to the scientific community in Israel and Germany. Ideally, the Center is devoted to an emerging research field which is not yet well established in Israel and which does not yet attract sufficient grants and donations.

Research Activities at the Minerva Centers

Research at Minerva Centers is carried out in cooperation with German partners and involves excellent scientists regardless of their institutional affiliation in order to create an inter-university community in the field. The Minerva Center Programme aims at bridging gaps, training young scientists and building networks in the respective field of research. Joint research projects, short-term research exchanges, symposia and workshops intend to deepen the scientific contacts between Israel and Germany.

With the first Center installed in 1975, today 24 Minerva Centers perform top-level scientific research in various fields of the natural sciences, social sciences ,and the humanities.