The innovative company Bayer has been committed to benefiting society from its founding in the 19th Century. Today, the company’s social and scientific commitments are pooled in the Bayer Foundations.
The company supported its first young scientist back in 1883. Friedrich Bayer Jr., son of the company’s founder, financed a research stay in Strasbourg for a bright young chemist: Carl Duisberg. A few years later in 1897, Bayer Jr. laid the groundwork for what would become the Bayer Foundations.
Since the start of the 20th Century, the Group has been promoting the sciences with a systematic approach that comprises both financial and conceptual support. Scholarship programs and awards for outstanding research were central components of this work from an early stage. Many of these, such as the Carl Duisberg scholarship program or the Otto Bayer Award, are named after influential personalities in the company’s history or were endowed by them directly.