Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
The Max Planck Society enjoys worldwide recognition for its excellence in research. Since its establishment in 1948, no fewer than 20 Nobel laureates have emerged from the ranks of its scientists. For example, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Scientific and Managing Director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin, and Reinhard Genzel, director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, received the prestigious award in 2020 (Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Physics respectively).
The Max Planck Institutes offer a vibrant, open and international working environment. Not surprisingly, the appeal of the Max Planck Society has spread worldwide. More than half of all the researchers at the Max Planck Society hold a foreign passport, forming a creative cosmos in which interdisciplinary and intercultural concepts and innovative ideas come to bear. This, in turn, ensures the success of the excellent basic research for which the Max Planck Society is renowned.
The Max Planck Society supports outstanding young scientists and researchers, who complete formative years of their careers as student assistants, PhD students, postdocs, or research group leaders at Max Planck Institutes, and who benefit from the knowledge of their internationally networked research mentors.
© Axel Griesch
Organisational details
24,000 people (researchers, doctoral students, graduates, scholarship holders, visiting researchers and staff) are employed at the Max Planck Society. The MPG’s headquarters are located in Munich.
In all, 86 research institutions belong to the Max Planck Society. They include centres not only in Germany, but also abroad. The institutes have their own budgets and are free to decide on their research projects. Heads of institutes enjoy the best possible working conditions and have complete autonomy in choosing their staff, subject matter and cooperation partners.
Facts and figures
86 research institutes and facilities (5 institutes outside Germany)
24,000 employees, including 6,900 researchers, 2,100 visiting researchers, 3,400 doctoral students and 600 scholarship holders
More than half of the researchers come from outside Germany
Annual budget: approx. 2.4 billion euros (2019)
Research activities
Max Planck Institutes conduct basic research in the interest of the public good. The research fields are:
- Natural sciences
- Life sciences
- Social sciences and the humanities
Some institutes also perform services for university research, providing equipment and facilities to researchers, such as telescopes, large-scale equipment, specialised libraries and documentary resources.
International cooperation
Max Planck Institutes frequently build international networks to create the critical mass for specific research topics. MPG researchers are highly sought-after and appreciated as esteemed research partners worldwide. This is evidenced by the fact that around 16,500 junior and visiting researchers worked at the Max Planck Society on fixed-term contracts of varying lengths during the course of 2019. Additionally, Max Planck Institutes were involved in roughly 3,000 international research projects with more than 6,000 partners in over 120 countries around the world.
As a research partner, the Max Planck Society collaborates with numerous institutes and multinational research facilities outside Germany.
Budget
The budget amounts to approx. 2.4 billion euros (2019).
© FAZIT
The Max Planck Society is primarily financed by public funds from the Federal Government and the states (Länder). It also receives third-party project funding from public and private bodies as well as the European Union.
Jobs at the Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society focuses on basic research in the natural sciences, life sciences, humanities and social sciences. Details of research grants and job vacancies can be found in the central Max Planck Society database or on the websites of the 86 Max Planck Institutes and research facilities.
International Max Planck Research Schools
International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRSs) enable talented young researchers to complete a doctorate in an outstanding research environment. There are currently 60 IMPRSs. They work closely with universities and other research institutions, also outside Germany.
Max Planck Schools
The best researchers in Germany are to pass on their knowledge to the most ambitious Bachelor and Master graduates through close personal exchange in small groups and with the aid of excellent infrastructures. Renowned researchers at universities and non-university research institutes all over Germany are working together in support of this idea. So far, three Max Planck Schools have been established in the areas of Cognition, Matter to Life, and Photonics.
Max Planck Research
You can access the e-paper edition of the science magazine Max Planck Research on the Internet:
