No. 112/2021

der von Humboldt Foundation. Without them we would not only be less good, we would fail in our mission. In what way? It’s all about the variety of ideas and perspec- tives, the variety of imprinting and horizons. In business, the correlation between diver- sity and corporate success is well established. Companies with a high degree of diversity across all levels of the hierarchy are consid- erably more likely to register above average profitability. The same presumably applies to science, too, as its success depends espe- cially on the creativity and diversity of those involved. Another aspect that is important to me is equity. And I don’t just mean the respec- tive share of men, women and diverse groups of people, although at the moment Germany is really emphasising this aspect. I’m also talk- ing about old and young. Or people with dis- abilities, people who have to overcome social inequality. If we ask around in our interna- tional network, we discover that diversity “IT’S NOT ENOUGH SIMPLY TO SAY, IT IS AS IT IS!” Excellence and diversity are not a contradiction in terms, according to Hans-Christian Pape. A conversation about the power of positive incentives and diversity in the Humboldt Network. KOSMOS: Mr Pape, diversity is a key com- ponent of the Foundation’s strategy. Why is the topic important to you? HANS-CHRISTIAN PAPE: Diversity is a core characteristic of our academic network. It’s in our DNA. We sponsor researchers frommore than 140 countries in this world, whether from the United States, India, Cameroon or Peru. We sponsor quantum physicists and sociolo- gists, practitioners and theoreticians as well as people who pursue different schools of thought and approaches. We invest in seminal subjects like AI and in vital applications in fields such as medicine. We consciously promote basic research with just the same degree of enthu- siasm because we are convinced that every sci- entific insight is functional and contributes to the development of society. Ultimately, it is the dynamism of science, too, that benefits from the tension between the complex of values sur- rounding truth and utility that is conveyed in their discourse, and thus from the diver- sity of their protagonists. This diversity and dynamism are quality features of the Alexan- PROFESSOR DR HANS-­ CHRISTIAN PAPE is President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and head of the Department of Neurophysiology at the University of Münster. Photo: Humboldt Foundation/Mario Wezel › 21 HUMBOLDT KOSMOS 112/2021