Research organizations
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Science and research in Germany are characterized by an excellent infrastructure and well-equipped research facilities with highly qualified staff. Germany offers a host of research locations, from universities, including universities of applied sciences, to non-university institutes, companies and federal as well as state institutions. Around 750 publicly-funded research institutions exist alongside research and development centres run by businesses.
Germany is home to over 350 universities. The education they provide is shaped by the symbiosis of teaching and research. The Federal Government and the states have set up the Initiative for Excellence to support top-level research and to make Germany more competitive as a research location.
Explore below some of the leading research institutions in Germany.
The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
Fraunhofer is Europe’s largest application- oriented research organization. Its research efforts are geared entirely to direct utility in private and public enterprise and wide societal benefit: health, security, communication, energy and the environment. As a result, the work undertaken by Fraunhofer researchers and developers has a significant impact on people’s lives. There are 80 research units, including 59 Fraunhofer Institutes, at different locations in Germany. The total research budget is 1.6 billion Euro annually, of which only one third is contributed by the German federal and state governments.
The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
The Helmholtz Association is a community of 16 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centres. The Association strives to gain insights and knowledge to help preserve and improve the foundations of human life. It does so by identifying and working on the grand challenges faced by society, science and industry. Helmholtz Centres perform top-class research in strategic programmes in six core fields: Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, Key Technologies, Structure of Matter, Aeronautics, Space and Transport.
Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time researching in Germany. The Foundation maintains a network of well over 24,000 Humboldtians from all disciplines in more than 130 countries worldwide - including 44 Nobel Prize winners.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Max Planck Society
The research institutes of the Max Planck Society perform basic research in the interest of the general public in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. In particular, the Max Planck Society takes up new and innovative research areas that German universities are not in a position to accommodate or deal with adequately.The variety of topics in the natural sciences and the humanities at Max Planck Institutes complement the work done at universities and other research facilities in important research fields.
Max Planck Society
