Promotional Fund and Rehwinkel-Stiftung Foundation
Promotional Fund: Focus on research and continuing education
Rentenbank devotes its entire distributable profit to the promotion of agriculture and rural areas. One half of the distributable profit is allocated to Rentenbank’s Promotional Fund and the other half to the Federal Republic of Germany’s Special-Purpose Fund administered by Rentenbank.
An amount of EUR 9.5 million was allocated to the Promotional Fund from Rentenbank’s distributable profit in the past financial year. We used these funds to support both individual projects and institutions of importance for agriculture and rural areas.
Another focal point of the Promotional Fund besides agriculture-related research is the promotion of cooperation projects between academic facilities and institutions in the agricultural sector. We also used resources from the Promotional Fund to support practice-oriented pilot projects, educational measures and events. These included, in particular, projects connected with advanced training and continuing education events for the agricultural profession.
Financial support was also provided for international cooperation in the agricultural sector, in particular exchange projects between students of agricultural sciences and projects aimed at knowledge transfer for children and young people.
In addition, we supported projects in the areas of forest and forestry management, animal welfare and livestock farming, as well as climate change mitigation and sustainability.
Edmund Rehwinkel Foundation: supporting science and research
The Edmund Rehwinkel Foundation was established by Rentenbank in 1974. In keeping with the spirit of its namesake, Edmund Rehwinkel, former President of the German Farmers’ Association, the Foundation supports agricultural research and projects with substantial practical benefits for agriculture. The capital of this foundation organised under civil law, which is recognised as a non-profit institution, is EUR 17 million.
Academic papers
The annual calls for proposals on current issues in the agribusiness sector address topics that are both scientifically relevant and part of current public debate and developments. These research contributions are presented to a broad audience at the Rehwinkel Symposium.
Under the title “Transformed Agriculture in Global Competition”, the studies supported were presented at the 2025 Rehwinkel Symposium. In the reporting year, academic papers were supported on the topic of “Agriculture as a Solution Provider for Climate Change Mitigation – Opportunities for Agriculture and Alternative Sources of Income”. For work to be carried out in the coming year, a call for proposals was issued on the topic “Food as Critical Infrastructure – Challenges and Safeguarding the Future in Germany and Europe”.
Scholarships
The foundation also awards two to three scholarships per year to outstanding students specialising in agriculture or food sciences. The scholarship recipients receive financial support for two years. They can also attend seminars, trade fairs, and other events.
Additionally, the Rehwinkel Stiftung awards a total of four German National Scholarships sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; BMFTR) to students of Göttingen University and Giessen University.