Press Release

Robert Bosch Stiftung realigns focus on ten new topics

  • Robert Bosch Stiftung looks back on a successful 2019
  • 105 million euros expended on charitable causes
     

Stuttgart, January 30, 2020. In 2019, the Robert Bosch Stiftung repositioned itself in terms of its focus areas: In the future, its activities will be targeted at ten new topics determined by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees last year. This move is motivated by the desire to make the provided support more effective. “Our founder Robert Bosch made it part of our mission to frequently review our own work and adapt it to current social challenges. This is why development and change have been part of our mission since the Foundation was established,” explains Prof. Dr. Joachim Rogall, Chairman of the Management Board. “In recent years, however, we have come to notice that the challenges posed by an increasingly uncertain and complex world have changed dramatically. Philanthropy is also undergoing a global transformation. Therefore, we have reviewed and profoundly restructured our activities.”

The focus on significantly fewer topics than before is the result of a two-year strategy process. The new topics on which the Foundation will focus in the future are:

  • Health care system for the future and people in the health care system in the support area of Health;
  • Learning and school development in the support area of Education;
  • Democracy and immigration society in the support area of Active Citizenship;
  • Conflict, climate change, migration, and inequality in the support area of International Understanding and Cooperation.

In the support area of Science and Research, the strategy process will be completed by summer 2020.

While the strategic realignment was ongoing, the Robert Bosch Stiftung continued its project work and support activities. Last year, the Foundation expended some 105 million euros (provisional figure) on charitable causes. At its New Year's reception in Berlin, the Foundation’s Board of Management looked back on a successful 2019.

A center for patient-oriented, cutting-edge medicine

In early 2019, the Robert Bosch Stiftung decided to establish the Bosch Health Campus. This new center for patient-oriented, cutting-edge medicine that focuses on treatment, research, and education will be built at the site of the Robert Bosch Hospital in Stuttgart by 2025. The Foundation is providing some 250 million euros for buildings and equipment, with another 120 million euros earmarked for medical research until 2025. This is the single largest investment in the Foundation's history to date. The planned campus is a timely response to a major challenge in health care: interdisciplinary care of patients in one place. On top of that, the expansion of research activities will bring treatment and medical research (translation) even closer together.

International perspectives for Germany and Europe

In June 2019, the Robert Bosch Academy celebrated its fifth anniversary. Founded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the Berlin-based institution has become a go-to place to address issues of global importance from an international perspective. To date, some seventy renowned figures from 34 countries have accepted the Academy’s invitation for a work stay. Their expertise enriches the discourse in Germany and Europe – in around a thousand background conversations with representatives from politics, the media, civil society, science, and business a year, as well as in numerous public events organized by the Robert Bosch Academy. The Foundation is planning to integrate this potential even more closely with its support activities in the future and, in this context, further expand its cooperation with think tanks.

The UWC Robert Bosch College also celebrated an anniversary in 2019. Five years ago, the first young people moved into their rooms at this unique high school with students from more than 100 countries, located on the grounds of a former Carthusian monastery in Freiburg. Some 400 young people have since graduated with the globally recognized International Baccalaureate and are now taking their international learning experience out into the world.

Contact person

Press contact
Michael Herm, Senior Expert
Robert Bosch Stiftung
Heidehofstraße 31
70184 Stuttgart
Phone+49 711 46084-290
e-mail to Press contact