[1][2] Annually, the Foundation grants over 700 competitive research fellowships and awards, primarily to academics in the natural sciences, mathematics and the humanities.

[3] These enable scientists and scholars from around the world to conduct research in Germany, collaborating with a host and partner of their choosing.

Its alumni network, comprising over 26,000 Humboldtians in more than 140 countries, including 57 Nobel laureates, is the foundation's greatest asset.

[7] The Foundation was initially established in Berlin in 1860 to support German scientists conducting research abroad.

It was re-established in Bonn-Bad Godesberg on December 10, 1953, under the leadership of physicist Werner Heisenberg, with a new mission: “to grant fellowships to academics of foreign nationality, without regard to gender, race, religion, or ideology, to enable them to continue their academic training by a study-visit to Germany“.