The Gerda Henkel Foundation was founded in June 1976 by Lisa Maskell in memory of her mother Gerda Henkel as a private, non-profit, grant-making organisation dedicated to fostering research in the humanities. The Foundation focuses on the support of academic projects and PhD scholarships, primarily in the fields of History, Art History, Archaeology and History of Islam. The Foundation has its headquarters in Düsseldorf and is active in Germany and abroad.