Stiftung Mercator

Stiftung Mercator is a private foundation which fosters science and the humanities, education and international understanding. It specifically initiates, develops and funds projects and partner organizations in the thematic fields to which it is committed: it wants to strengthen Europe, improve integration through equal educational opportunities for everyone, drive forward the energy transition as a trigger for global climate change mitigation and firmly anchor cultural education in schools. Stiftung Mercator feels a strong sense of loyalty to the Ruhr region, the home of the founding family and the foundation’s headquarters.

Stiftung Mercator implements its own projects and provides funding for external projects. In practice, roughly 20 percent of projects are implemented by the foundation itself, while around 80 percent are funded as external projects.

Projects are chosen first and foremost on the basis of whether they will help achieve the concrete targets in our four thematic clusters. All submitted grant applications should be oriented towards at least one of these clusters and contribute to the achievement of its objectives.