Eva Luise and Horst Köhler Foundation for People with Rare Diseases

The Eva Luise and Horst Köhler Foundation for People with Rare Diseases was established in 2006 by the then German President Horst Köhler and his wife Eva Luise. Since then, the foundation has been working to improve medical care for the approximately five million children, adolescents and adults patients in Germany alone through targeted research funding, networking and public relations work. The annual Eva Luise Köhler Research Award for Rare Diseases is one of the most prestigious awards in this field of research. As the initiator of the Alliance4Rare, our foundation has set itself challenging goals for the coming years. This civil society alliance combines the expertise of university children's hospitals with strong research capabilities with the creative will of sponsoring partners. The Alliance4Rare sees itself as a bridge between the rapidly developing possibilities of modern medicine and the immense need for research in pediatrics. The research network, which initially comprised three university locations at the time of its founding, is to be developed into a nationwide care and research structure for rare diseases.