The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines.

Funding and Structure

As of 2020, 96 non-university research institutes and service institutions for science are part of the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft. The fields range from natural science, engineering, and ecology, to economics, other social sciences, spatial science, and humanities. The Leibniz Institutes work in an interdisciplinary fashion, and connect basic and applied science. They cooperate with universities, industry, and other partners in different parts of the world. Taken together, the Leibniz Institutes employ 20,000 people and have a budget of €1.9 billion. Leibniz Institutes are funded publicly to equal parts by the federal government and the Federal states (Bundesländer). Every Leibniz institution is evaluated by the Leibniz Senate regularly, at a minimum of once every seven years. The evaluation is used as a benchmark of quality with respect to the work and research carried out by the institutes.

History

The Leibniz-Gemeinschaft is named after the German philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and inventor

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to ...

(1646–1716). The Leibniz Association evolved from the "Blaue Liste" (blue list) in former Western Germany and research institutions of the

German Academy of Sciences at Berlin The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, , in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent Research institute, research institution of East Germany (German Democratic Repub ...

of the former DDR, whose research capability was deemed worth keeping after an evaluation by the German ''

Wissenschaftsrat The ''German Science and Humanities Council'' (Wissenschaftsrat, WR) is an advisory body to the German Federal Government and the federal state governments. It makes recommendations on the development of science, research, and the universities, a ...

''. The name 'Blaue Liste' for a German model for funding science has been retired, and traces back to the color of a dossier. The Leibniz Association's headquarter is located in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and there is an EU bureau in Brussels. Since 2014, the engineer Matthias Kleiner has been president of the Leibniz Association, with Christiane Neumann acting as secretary general. In 2020, the

Nature Index The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries/territories and their scientific output since its introduction in November 2014. Originally released with 64 natural-science journals, the Nature Index expanded to 82 natural-sci ...

based on scientific publication rates, ranked the Leibniz Association as 3rd in Germany and 56th across the globe.

Sections

A - Humanities and Educational Research

B - Economics, Social Sciences, Spatial Research

C - Life Sciences

D - Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Engineering

E - Environmental Sciences

References

External links

Homepage of the Leibniz Association, redirecting links to all of its institutes
{{Authority control Scientific organisations based in Germany Scientific organisations based in Berlin Scientific organizations established in 1990 1990 establishments in Germany