On Monday November 9, 2020, the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Awards 2020. The MPIWG's Executive Director, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Schäfer, receives the Leibniz Award for her groundbreaking contributions to a comprehensive, global, and comparative history of technology and science. Her work on China has shed new light on the alleged stagnation in the development of knowledge, as perceived from the West, and has opened up new perspectives on a global history since the era termed the "early modern period" from a European viewpoint.

Of the ten 2020 Leibniz Award laureates, four come from the humanities and social sciences, three from the life sciences, one from the natural sciences, and two from the engineering sciences. The award winners each receive prize money of 2.5 million euros. This film introduces the award winners in video portraits, laudations, and greetings. This video is in German language.