The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities was founded in 1970 as a follow-up institution to the Working Group on Research of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Working Group had been established by Prime Minister Karl Arnold in order to advise the North Rhine-Westphalian government during post-war reconstruction. Advising the state government on research promotion and instigating new research projects continues to be part of the statutory duties of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in its role as a scholarly society. Furthermore, the Academy supervises long-term research projects, and also carries out projects of its own, such as, in the humanities, editing G.F.W. Hegel's collected works and the “Acta Pacis Westphalicae” (documents relating to the Peace of Westphalia). Regarding research in the natural sciences, the projects “Discrete Mathematics and its Applications” and “Young Stars and Quasars” may be quoted as examples. The project “Prerequisites, Norms and Criteria of Ethical Judgment Formation in the Life Sciences – German Reference Centre for Ethics in the Life Sciences”, founded in 1999, whose work provides the basis for a qualified discussion of bioethics in a national as well as an international context, was transformed into a working group of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in January 2004. In 2006, “Rationality in the Light of Experimental Research in Economics”, a research project in economics directed by Nobel laureate Prof. Dr. Reinhard Selten, was added to the Academy’s research portfolio. Since the inclusion of the project “Novum testamentum Graecum” in 2008, Greek Bible texts have been studied. Since the beginning of 2009, an archeological project has been doing research on the site of an extra-urban holy shrine in Turkey. On September 1st, 2006, the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Mercator Foundation and the Ministry for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of North Rhine-Westphalia founded the “Junges Kolleg”. For a limited time, up to 30 junior researchers are given a platform for interdisciplinary exchange as well as financial and non-financial support for their research projects and the opportunity of presenting their research to the public. In 2008, the Act on the Academy of Science and Humanities was amended, expanding the Academy to include a fourth class, the Arts, a change which is reflected in the Academy’s new extended title. New fellows are elected by the Ordinary fellows of the Academy from among North Rhine-Westphalia's outstanding scientists and academics. The current President of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is Professor of Economics Dr. Manfred J. M. Neumann.

Contact:
Nordrhein-Westphälische Akademien der Wissenschaften
Karl-Arnold-Haus der Wissenschaften
Palmenstraße 16 | 40217 Düsseldorf
Tel.: 0211 / 61 73 40 | Fax: 0211 / 34 14 75
E-Mail: awk@awk.nrw.de | www.awk.nrw.de