The Gerda Henkel Foundation has granted funds to 57 new research projects worldwide. At its Autumn meeting, the Foundation made available a total sum of a good 8.5 million euros for this purpose. Among the projects approved for support is a shipbuilding project in the pre-colonial tradition on the Solomon Islands and in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. Another key decision was taken by the Foundation’s boards, namely to support 13 projects in the field of research on forced migration. Across all the fields eligible for grants, applications from scholars from no less than 27 different countries were approved, ranging from Egypt and Ethiopia to the United States and Vietnam.

Example I: Boats made using traditional methods
When in the 16^th century European expeditions dared to sail as far afield as Oceania[J1] , they encountered settlements on even the smallest of archipelagos. There, the local communities nurtured familial and trade relationships by sea. Because colonial and missionary practices put paid to this mobility, today there are very few training centres in Oceania where skills in traditional shipbuilding can be acquired. With the involvement of various groups of inhabitants, on both the Solomon Islands and in Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea respectively a warehouse and a boat will be built. Other boat-building schools will then be able to rely on the construction knowledge thus documented.

Example II: Research on forced migration and displaced persons
With its “Forced Migration” funding initiative, the Gerda Henkel Foundation supports approaches that seek to link theoretical basic research on forced migration and displaced persons with insights of a practical nature. The Autumn meeting approved trans-regional projects as well as detailed studies on Ghana, Kenya, Mexico and Venezuela. Two further projects are dedicated to Syrian refugees abroad. The one case relates to their repatriation[J2]  from the neighbouring countries of Lebanon and Turkey, the other focuses on their lives in the metropolises of Amsterdam and Berlin.