Science & Education

Hasso Plattner considers the free education that he received at the University of Karlsruhe to be the foundation of his success. As one of the founders of SAP, he also believes in the opportunities offered by digital technology. The Foundation supports the following research and education initiatives designed to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies:

• The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), a faculty of the University of Potsdam, which is dedicated to IT systems engineering. One area of focus for HPI is Digital Health, where the institute cooperates with the Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS) in New York City
• The founding of schools of design thinking such as the HPI School of Design Thinking at the University of Potsdam, the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking at the University of Cape Town, and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University
• Data4life, a nonprofit organization focused on developing platforms that empower individuals to manage their health using data and enable researchers to derive insights from health data

Social & Conservation

In order to preserve our planet for future generations, the foundation supports environmental conservation and educational projects through the Sabine Plattner African Charities (SPAC). Examples of projects include:

• The EduConservation program, which has distributed learning materials for children on the subject of environmental conservation that are designed to be integrated into school curriculums in the Congo and numerous other African countries
• Community engagement in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Congo, which contributed to the conservation of 1.3 million hectares of rainforest
• A research project on gorilla behavior in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Congo

Art & Culture

Hasso Plattner’s personal interest in art has led him to become a collector of Impressionist and German twentieth-century art. In order to share this art collection with the public, the Foundation supports the following initiatives:

• The establishment and ongoing operation of the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, which showcases classical and contemporary art with a focus on impressionism
• The construction and ongoing operation of the new exhibition site DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, which focuses on contemporary art and art from the German Democratic Republic 
• The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, which was founded in 2016 and is dedicated to the compilation of digital catalogue raisonnés and archives that support research in the field of art history