Awards will be given for support and consultation services that provide effective help for people, demonstrate verifiably successful management of a project, and pursue new ideas and approaches. The overall winner will receive EUR 15,000 of the total EUR 30,000 prize money, the runner-up EUR 10,000 and third place winner EUR 5,000. Organizations and initiatives themselves can enter and the award is also actively aimed at members of the public. The overall winner’s prize money will be increased by five euros (up to a maximum of EUR 5,000) for each entry from a project sponsor that is based on an idea from the public. In addition, anyone can assess entries in an online voting procedure. Pharmacists throughout Germany are involved in the competition, using brochures and posters to promote the “Aspirin Social Award”.

“We have three objectives with the ‘Aspirin Social Award’. Firstly, we support specific projects; secondly, we reward the major importance to the community that social work has in the health sector and seek to enhance public awareness of this; and thirdly, we are looking to support innovations in this area,” explains Dr. Richard Pott, member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG responsible for Strategy and Human Resources and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bayer foundation.

In Germany, over 100,000 non-profit organizations and initiatives are active in the social sector. Yet demand for social services continues, particularly in the health sector. The institutions involved are tasked with looking for new, effective approaches in their project work.

“Aspirin has provided effective, reliable help for 110 years. With the slogan ‘Support that works’, we are establishing an award designed to enhance these benefits, which are of such importance to society today,” said Urs Hartmann, head of the Consumer Care Division at Bayer Vital GmbH, explaining the name of the award.

Judging and public voting

Projects will be selected in a two-stage process. All valid proposals submitted in the entry period will be profiled at external link: www.aspirin-sozialpreis.de. Nine projects will be preselected with support from specialist project consultant Dieter Brübach, Chairman of the Deutsche Spendenparlament [German Donation Parliament] initiative. A further candidate will be selected from a public vote, with everyone able to personally assess entries on the Internet from December 1 to 31. The winner of this public vote will be sure of a place on the overall shortlist of 10 candidates.

The final judging and selection of the top three winners will be performed by an independent scientific committee from the “Bayer Cares Foundation”, made up of experts in social commitment and from the health sector. It will be chaired by Professor André Habisch, Professor for Christian Social Ethics and Society at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bayer Cares Foundation.

Bayer Cares Foundation

The Bayer Cares Foundation launched by Bayer AG in 2007 supports social initiatives. As well as the recently established “Aspirin Social Award”, it supports social projects involving employees and citizens working in and around Bayer sites on a voluntary basis. The foundation also promotes long-term reconstruction projects and provides immediate aid for people who suddenly find themselves in acute hardship due to natural disasters.


Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group or subgroup management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports, which are available on the Bayer website at external link: www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.