research institutions

Germany’s science and research system is extremely diverse. Besides the country’s research universities, there are a lot of other research organisations. The most important of them are the Max Planck Society, Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association and the Fraunhofer Society. Besides these major players, Germany also operates a wide range of public and private research centres. All in all, there are around 750 state-financed research institutions in Germany, plus research and development centres run by industrial corporations.

Research institutions

• Helmholtz Association: The Helmholtz Association with 28,000 employees in 16 research centres is Germany’s largest scientific organisation and has an annual budget of approximately 2.8 billion euros.
• Max Planck Society: The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science is an independent, non-profit research organization that primarily promotes and supports research at its own institutes.
• Leibniz Association: The Leibniz Association comprises 86 research institutions which address scientific issues of importance to society as a whole. They provide infrastructure for science and research and perform research-based services
• Fraunhofer Society: The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft undertakes applied research of direct utility to private and public enterprise and of wide benefit to society.

Government

• Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung BMBF

International cooperation

• Kooperation international is a portal for international cooperation in education and research and a communication platform for those seeking information and cooperation partners in Germany and abroad,

Links

• Forschungslandkarte shows all public and private research institutions in Germany.
• research-in-germany.de: The English web portal is an information platform that provides information on Germany’s research landscape, funding and career opportunities. The news section is the easiest way to stay up-to-date with current news and developments in science and research in Germany. The portal also offers a selection of over 300 annotated links to interesting websites.
• See also the list of the German universities.