The Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK) is a foundation dedicated to promoting scholarship, based in Delmenhorst. As an “Institute for Advanced Study,” it has been supporting approximately 50 recognized scholars, authors, and artists annually since 1997 as fellows (visiting scholars) through research and work grants in Delmenhorst, thereby promoting academic excellence in northwestern Germany. The HWK is funded by the states of Lower Saxony and Bremen and the city of Delmenhorst.
The HWK allows its fellows to focus on a research project free from academic obligations and promotes dialogue across boundaries of disciplines and academic thought through opportunities for cooperation and exchange. Fellows benefit from the HWK’s close collaboration with the universities in Bremen and Oldenburg and other regional research institutions such as the Alfred Wegener Institute, the ForWind research network, and others, as well as its large international alumni network. In this way, the HWK promotes the internationalization of regional scholarship and its clusters of excellence.
With up to 60 specialized events featuring international speakers each year and a public lecture series, the HWK also serves as a venue for both experts and the general public to engage in sophisticated intellectual discourse on scientific and social issues.
The HWK enables scholarly work with a high degree of individual autonomy and extensive personal support. It promotes intellectual independence and originality, the constructive disagreement of scholarly perspectives, and intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue. As a professional research institution, the HWK considers itself neutral on political and social issues.
Funding Areas
The HWK pursues four discipline-independent research priorities in the natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences: BRAIN & MIND, EARTH, TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE, and SOCIETY. A fifth priority, ARTS & LITERATURE, supports interdisciplinary collaboration among Fellows and engagement with fundamental questions regarding the creation and dissemination of knowledge in society. The presence of Artists in Residence and their working relationships with cultural institutions in the region create points of connection for a self-critical encounter between the sciences and the arts.