Christoph Seiler, PhD, received a Foerderer Fund for Excellence award at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2015 to study this mechanism. German-born Dr. Seiler pointed out that “Foerderer,” in German, means supporter or sponsor. Its name is therefore apt, because the internal award program spurs research projects that need a bit of support to generate pilot data that can later help those projects stand out in the competitive awarding of external funds.
