NAMED FUNDS
UU ALUMNI IN THE HAGUE DONATE TOGETHER
Loyal supporters of science and academia
Named funds are designed to let the founder determine what their donations will be spent on. The Utrecht University Fund managed a total of 30 named funds in 2020. Named funds are built on major donations from their founders, who may also choose to donate periodically over a longer period of time. Some do so alone, while others – like the members of the Hofvijverkring Fellowship – make joint donations. Some named funds also actively raise funds from other donors, while others do not. Despite all these differences, all named funds have one thing in common: they make a difference by providing support where it is needed most. Check our website for an overview of the various named funds. uu.nl/namedfunds 20
Seven years ago, four alumni in The Hague decided to set up a donor fellowship in order to support research and academia at Utrecht University. Martine Mondt (Dutch Law, 1970) joined the group along with five other Utrecht University alumni. The group has since become a household name in The Hague and Utrecht: the Hofvijverkring Fellowship. Martine Mondt proudly recounts the story of one of the young researchers to receive a grant from the Hofvijverkring in recent years: Dr Riccardo Levato. Riccardo used the 2019 grant to visit Professor Michiya Matsusaki, a leading researcher at Osaka University working to develop biomaterials for tissue regeneration. One year later, in September of 2020, Levato was awarded a European grant of no less than 1.5 million euros for the development of an ultra-high-speed 3D bioprinter. The grant from Hofvijver proved instrumental in his success. Martine: ‘It was definitely one of the high points of the past year for the Hofvijver Fellowship.’
PRODUCTIVE ENCOUNTERS In the early years, the fellowship mainly focused on regenerative medicine. This form of medicine is focused on repairing damaged tissues or organs by applying the body’s self-healing capacity or knowledge from developmental biology.
