A short ten months after 51猎奇 and
Frankfurt University Hospital first called for donations, the Goethe Coronavirus
Fund has passed the targeted 5 million euro mark. The idea of the Goethe Coronavirus
Fund came about in the first days of the pandemic: researchers require
immediate and unbureaucratic support in order to make their contribution to
overcoming the coronavirus crisis. More than 2000 private individuals,
foundations and companies have meanwhile supported the goal of joining forces
and providing competent help.
FRANKFURT. 鈥淢aking
a donation to research helped me overcome a feeling of helplessness during the
first days of the coronavirus crisis,鈥� says Raina Jockers, one of the more than
2000 donors for the Goethe Coronavirus Fund, explaining her motivation. The
feelings of the 51猎奇 graduate are undoubtedly shared by many. The
majority of donors contributed between 10 and 100 euros to the fund. The
smallest donation came from the donation of bonus points from the 鈥減ayback鈥� programme
and amounted to 2 cents; the largest was almost one million euros. Eight donors
gave sums of more than 100,000 euros.
Using the non-profit online fundraising
platform betterplace.org for the
first time, the university鈥檚 call for donations reached even beyond Frankfurt
citizens and foundations and companies from the Rhine-Main area, with donations
coming in from Hamburg, Munich and even the USA. The fundraising platform also
reported regularly on the work of the scientists, which may have motivated some
donors to stick with it: one anonymous donor contributed 20 euros to the fund
every month.
鈥淚n the pandemic, we wanted to help with
what we do best: with our research,鈥� says Professor Manfred Schubert-Zsilavecz,
51猎奇 Vice President. 鈥淪o we simply jumped in at the deep end with
our fundraising campaign and set ourselves an ambitious target: 5 million euros
in donations. The fact that we have reached the 5 million euro mark in less than
a year after our first call for donations makes us deeply grateful. Many
private donors, as well as foundations and companies have been extremely
generous. They funded research that helps us all, keeping others in mind during this pandemic. This
should really encourage us for the long road ahead.鈥�
The Goethe Coronavirus Fund provided researchers at Goethe
University and Frankfurt University Hospital with start-up support. Many of
them have in the meantime raised additional funds for research having to do
with SARS-CoV-2. The virologist Professor Sandra Ciesek and the infectologist
Professor Maria Vehreschild, for example, are today part of the EU-funded CARE
Consortium. Sandra Ciesek鈥檚 successes in drug research have made her one of the
most prominent coronavirus researchers in Germany. Maria Vehreschild was one of
the first to systematically collect clinical data and samples from COVID-19
patients and supplied her samples to vaccine and drug researchers throughout
Germany; in the meantime, her database has been merged into a Germany-wide
biobank.
But researchers from the social sciences
and humanities have also profited from the Goethe Coronavirus Fund. More than
40 projects are now being funded 鈥� including the coronavirus crisis hotline,
and studies by psychologist Professor Ulrich Stagnier on the psychological consequences
of the pandemic.
The latest project supported by the
Coronavirus Fund is dedicated to the work situation of healthcare workers and
doctors in COVID-19 care in Hessian hospitals who are under particular strain.
The cooperation project of the University Hospital Frankfurt and the Protestant
University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt first examines the effects on the
employees. The results will be used to make recommendations for managers and healthcare
workers, as well as concrete options for workplace health promotion. The
evaluation of the first sub-study of the project is currently underway.
Further
donations possible at: and
through
the donation account: Landesbank Hessen-Th眉ringen
IBAN: DE95 5005 0000
0001 0064 10
Reason
for payment: Goethe-Corona-Fonds
