The Olympus Europe Foundation celebrates 15 years of promoting science for life since its establishment in 1988
The Olympus Europe Foundation can now look back on 15 successful years of promoting science.
It was established as a non-profit organisation in 1988, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Olympus Optical in Hamburg, and had initial funds of two million German marks (about one million euro).
The organisation's purpose is the promotion of science and research, especially in the fields of endoscopic diagnosis and therapy, microscopy, clinical chemistry and scientific photography.
Paying tribute to its social commitments, Olympus supports disciplines that also complete its core competencies with their scientific contributions.
The task of the foundation under civil law is to maintain the value of its capital, and to distribute the returns from this on a non-profit basis according to the wishes of the benefactor.
In the last 15 years, the Olympus Europe Foundation has donated around 1.28 million euro to ambitious scientific projects.
During this time, it has also increased the foundation's capital to 1.23 million euro through interest earned and donations.
To finance larger projects, the foundation created reserve funds from the ongoing income from interest or it distributed available resources over the course of several years.
