At present the German Research Foundation (DFG), which awards the Ursula M. Händel Animal Welfare Prize, is not currently funding any projects that primarily deal with substitute or complementary methods to animal testing, DFG spokesperson Marco Finetti told the Hamburger Abendblatt.

Such applications mostly used to be turned down, ostensibly because alternatives to animal testing were seen to belong in the area of applied research, whereas the DFG funds basic research. However, since basic research and applied research are becoming less and less distinguishable from each other, and developments in applied research also benefit basic research and vice versa, a paradigm shift is taking place.

The establishment of endowed professorships is much to be welcomed, as there is only one chair for replacement methods for animal tests at the University of Konstanz, financed with private capital from the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation. The Ursula M. Händel Animal Welfare Prize awarded by the DFG with a minimum prize money of 25,000 euros is also based on a private foundation.

Sources (in German):
http://www.abendblatt.de/

http://www.dfg.de/foerderung/programme/preise/haendel-preis/index.html