Yehudit and Yehuda Elkana Fellowship Program to Promote Free Scientific Exchange
The conditions for the free circulation of knowledge and the unhindered exchange of scientific hypotheses have deteriorated in recent years around the world. The polarization and rigidifying of public debates are increasing, and societal and political forces are intervening more frequently in research and teaching, to the point that researchers are being persecuted, expelled, or deprived of their liberty. This narrows the scope for scientific controversies, which are the indispensable precondition for academic work. The Yehudit and Yehuda Elkana Fellowship invites researchers who have served the free exchange of knowledge and hypotheses and the open scope for academic controversies to spend three to six months at The New Institute in Hamburg or at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin - Institute for Advanced Study. The Fellowship is tied to financial support amounting to 50,000 Euros for projects that aim to preserve free scientific exchange. The program is funded by the VolkswagenStiftung and the Marga and Kurt Möllgaard-Stiftung. It cooperates with the Einstein Stiftung Berlin.
Applications for the Yehudit and Yehuda Elkana Fellowships are not possible; funding decisions are made solely on the basis of nominations.
For further information on the programme, please contact Vera Kempa.
Advisory Board
- Nadia Al-Bagdadi
Central European University, Vienna/Budapest - Katharina Biegger
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin - Kader Konuk
University Duisburg-Essen - Ivan Krastev
Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia - Noémi Lévy-Aksu
Truth Justice Memory Center Hafiza Merkezi, Istanbul - Shalini Randeria
Central European University, Vienna - Martin Schulze Wessel
Ludwig Maximilians Universität München - Magdalena Waligórska
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Selection Committee
- Julika Griem
Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen - Lisa Herzog
University of Groningen - Wilhelm Krull
The New Institute, Hamburg - Andrii Portnov
European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) - Daniel Schönpflug
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin - Barbara Sheldon
The New Institute, Hamburg - Stephan Steinlein
Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin - Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
In advisory capacity:
- Henrike Hartmann
VolkswagenStiftung, Hannover - Marion Müller
Einstein Foundation Berlin - Heinz-Rudi Spiegel
Marga und Kurt Möllgaard-Stiftung, Essen

Vera Kempa
Academic Programs, Press and Public Relations
Tel. +49 30 89001 157
Email vera.kempa@wiko-berlin.de