The Scholarship

In 2007, the German University Sports Federation (Allgemeiner Deutscher Hochschulsportverband, adh), the University of Mannheim, and the Olympic center signed the cooperation agreement for becoming a partner university of top-level sports (“Partnerhochschule des Spitzensports”), which laid the foundation for the support of top athletes at the University of Mannheim.

In 2009 already, the Greinert Family established the Mannheim Sports Scholarship which, in 2018, was complemented by a new sponsor, the Dietmar Hopp Foundation, thus turning into the Elite Sports Scholarship Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region.

Due to the additional workload arising from their training schedule, it is particularly challenging for student athletes to pursue their degree. Yet, the experience they gain from sports often enables them to perform extraordinarily well in their academic career.

Klaus Greinert, sponsor of the Elite Sports Scholarship / Credit: Arthur Rewak
Mannheim Sports Scholarship - Dietmar Hopp Foundation

Top-level student athletes face a massive workload. I want them to have enough time for both sports training and studying. They motivate other people to practice sports as well. I am always happy to see more children and adolescents who abandon their game console and play soccer or practice for track and field competitions instead.

Dietmar Hopp, sponsor of the Elite Sports Scholarship / Credit: Sportstipendium MRN

Partner university of top-level sports

In 1999, the German University Sports Federation (Allgemeiner Deutscher Hochschulsportverband, adh) and various partners initiated the partner university of top-level sports project (“Partnerhochschule des Spitzensports”) to help elite athletes to reconcile their studies and sports career. On 21 February 2003, the University of Mannheim signed the cooperation agreement thus becoming a partner university of top-level sports. The university renewed the agreement on 21 March 2007.

The cooperation agreement intends to implement concrete measures supporting elite student athletes with the particular challenges they face. Across the country, more than 110 partner universities have joined the project.