Factsheet No. 4

By Muzinée Kistenfeger (science@british-embassy.de)

The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Sciences e.V. (MPG) is an independent, publicly funded organisation dedicated to basic research. It currently operates 80 well-equipped research institutes and facilities, which seek to augment and complement the work of universities and to provide a platform for interdisciplinary projects. Many institutes are founded around individual scientists who are allowed a high degree of scientific autonomy, thus being able to develop ideas under privileged conditions. One of the goals of the MPG is to identify new areas of research of which considerable and significant scientific advances might be expected in the future.

Budget

The Max Planck Society’s (MPG) total budget was Euro 1,450 million in 2006. Of this, close to 93% is met by public funding from the federal and state (Land) governments on a 50:50 basis. The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), a member of the Helmholtz Association, is an exception. It is funded on a 90:10 basis by the German government and the states of Bavaria and Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania. Institutional funding for the MPG alone accounted for € 1,166 million, including the IPP's funding of ca € 120 million. A further € 183 million comes from the public sector in the form of project grants (4.6% less than 2005). The remaining ca. 6.7% is being provided by own earnings, donations and contributions from members, and amounted to an estimated € 97 million in 2006. The MPG’s research priorities in terms of expenditure are:

• Life sciences - € 502 million
• physics - € 369 million
• astronomy and astrophysics - € 114 million
• chemistry - € 111 million
• history and social sciences - € 93 million
• atmospheric and geosciences - € 59 million
• jurisprudence - € 54 million
• medicine - € 60 million
• mathematics, computer sciences and engineering - € 65 million
• business sciences - € 7 million
  
  

In 2006, the MPG had a 3,2% budget increase over 2005 (€ 45.1 million)

Institutes and Structure

The Max Planck Society’s headquarters and its technology transfer branch, Max Planck Innovation GmbH, are located in Munich. Its institutes, out of which 77 are located throughout Germany and 3 abroad, subdivide into three groups:

• bio-medical research (30)
• physics and chemistry (31)
• humanities (19)
  

After the reunification of East and West Germany, the Max Planck Society set up 20 institutes in Germany’s eastern federal states to establish a state-of-the-art non-university research infrastructure in these regions.

The Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) at Garching near Munich has a special status as one of Germany’s large science facilities coming under the responsibility of Helmholtz Association (Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren - HGF) and administering its own budget (Budget B, some €121 million estimated for 2007). In 1994, the IPP set up a subsidiary at Greifswald, close to the Polish border in Mecklenburg - Western Pomerania, where a large new fusion project (the Wendelstein 7X Stellarator) has been constructed. The IPP also receives subsidies from EURATOM for a joint research programme.

The Max Planck Society’s members include individual researchers and organisations that undertake or support basic research. The President, at present Professor Peter Gruss, is Chairman of the three decision-making bodies, i.e. the General Assembly, the Senate (which elects the president and sets the research priorities) and the Executive Committee. The Max Planck facilities employ a total of over 12,600 staff between them. Additionally, over 8,000 scientists from Germany and abroad are carrying out research at Max Planck institutes on short-term contracts. This includes student assistants, PhD students, post doctorate students, visiting research fellows and guest scientists. Some of these are funded from the Max Planck Society’s programme to promote young scientists.

Technology Transfer and Innovation

Max Planck Innovation (formerly Garching Innovation), a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society, is responsible for identifying and commercialising the results of research carried out at Max Planck Institutes. MP Innovation provides patent consultancy to the institutes and promotes collaboration between Max Planck facilities and industry by informing interested companies of current research. It evaluates an average of 130 inventions per year. In 2006, MP Innovation concluded 81 contracts with industrial partners and had a licensing turnover of € 9.5 million (down from 19.8 million in the previous year, due to the expiring of a license for nuclear spin tomography). 73 companies were spun off from Max Planck Institutes between 1990 and 2005. Two further life sciences companies were spun off in 2006. Some of the better known Max Planck spin-offs include companies such as Lambda Physik, Sugen Inc., MorphoSys, GPC Biotech, Orpegen Pharma GmbH, EVOTEC Biosystems, HepaVec, Affectis Pharmaceuticals, Scienion and MondoGen. There are seven listed companies among Max Planck spin-offs.

Initiatives to Support Young Scientists

The Max Planck Society supports young scientists, including undergraduate researchers from universities and exchange scientists, within the framework of its Independent Junior Research’ Groups, which run for a limited period of time. Since 1969 the Max Planck Society has supported independent research teams led by young scientists, most of them in the bio-medical and the humanities research sectors. In 2006, close to 60 Independent Junior Research Groups were running at Max Planck Institutes plus 4 international groups. In 1999, the Max Planck Society decided to establish International Research Schools (interdisciplinary graduate schools). This joint initiative with universities in Germany aims to promote excellent PhD researchers and to attract more overseas researchers. The aim is to fill 50% of research school positions with scientists from overseas. By the end of 2006, there were 49 International Research Schools, 24 of them in the physics-chemistry section.

International Collaboration

The MPG has many members from abroad, including heads of institutes (close to 25%), and is involved in international research policy through memberships in consultancy groups and scientific organisations. At institute level, it promotes reciprocal agreements, international exchange of scientists and joint research facilities. The MPG has set up the Minerva Foundation in Israel, a special form of promotion of research cooperation and has close ties with the Weizmann Institute of Science. It has established overseas offices or institutes of its own in Italy, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Brazil. The MPG also collaborates with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and is involved in a joint laboratory for exchange scientists at the CAS Institute of Cell Biology. It set up partner groups with institutes in India and Eastern Europe. In the 6th EU Framework programme, the Max Planck Institutes received ca. € 140 million of funding. In recent years, the MPG has been strengthening strategic cooperation with research partners from Central and Eastern Europe and was very much involved in the organisation of the European Research Council ERC.

New MPG Research Strategy

The MPG experts believe that Europe is already suffering from a lack of well-trained scientists and engineers. In the near future Germany alone might have a shortage of some 60,000 - 70,000 engineers. So the Society is committed to supporting independent teams of young researchers and to strengthening the role of international research schools. The Max Planck Society plays a vital role in two main German initiatives: the Pact for Research and Innovation, focusing on increased cooperation between disciplines and institutions; and the Excellence Initiative, which will define the character and impact of German universities in the context of international competition.

The new strategy also implies intensifying cooperation with industry. In order to improve the translation of results into products, the Max Planck Society also bundles resources of industrial research into its networks. Successful cooperations are taking place especially in the fields of biomedical and material research. It has also intensified collaboration with the Fraunhofer Society, which traditionally focuses on applied and contract research. The two societies have initiated a series of projects at the interface of application-oriented and basic research in the fields of computer science, biotechnology, regenerative medicine and materials science.

In 2006, the President of the MPG, Prof. Peter Gruss, also identified several priority areas of research which will also play a great role in the future. Among them:
- demographic change and genetic aspects of ageing (a new MP Institute for Research on Ageing has been approved for construction in Cologne)
- sustainability of energy supplies (especially hydrogen and fuel cells)
- legal and social aspects of the terrorist threat

Recent Publications

• Annual Report 2006 (bilingual version)
• MPG-Jahrbuch 2005 (Yearbook of the Max Planck Society, in German only)
• Max Planck Research (half-yearly English-language newsletter of the Max Planck Society)
• Forschungsperspektiven 2005+ (Outlook on Key Areas of Future Research; in German only)
• Building Excellence - Recommendations of the Max Planck Society towards framework Programme 7 (2004)

Contact Details

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science
Hofgartenstrasse 8
80539 Munich
Germany
Tel: 0049 2108 1276
Fax: 0049 2108 1207
www.maxplanck.de and www.max-planck-innovation.de/en
presse@gv.mpg.de 

Science and Innovation Section

British Consulate-General
Möhlstrasse 5
D-81675 München
Germany
Tel: 0049 89 21109 112
Fax: 0049 89 21109 166
science@british-embassy.de
ukingermany.fco.gov.uk