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Research Partners

The BMBF is not only a financial backer but also a partner in the education and research system. It provides funds for different establishments. Essentially these are research institutions and funding agencies which the BMBF funds either alone or together with the Länder or other partners. As a rule this institution-based funding entails the cooperation of the BMBF in the supervisory boards of these organizations. Instead of simply supervising the legal activities of its subordinate bodies, the BMBF thus has a direct influence on the education and research system, either through the supervisory boards or through its membership of associations or foundation bodies, depending on the legal structure of the respective organization.

The Federal Republic of Germany does not generally stipulate responsibility for education and research as tasks of the BMBF. These tasks are usually laid down in special agreements. This is in accordance with Article 91b Basic Law on joint research funding by the Federal Government and the Länder, which states:

  1. The Federation and the Länder may mutually agree to cooperate in cases of supraregional importance in the promotion of:
    1. research facilities and projects apart from institutions of higher education;
    2. scientific projects and research at institutions of higher education;
    3. construction of facilities at institutions of higher education, including large scientific installations.

      Agreements under clause 2 of paragraph (1) shall require the consent of all the Länder.
  2. The Federation and the Länder may mutually agree to cooperate for the assessment of the performance of educational systems in international comparison and in drafting relevant reports and recommendations.
  3. The apportionment of costs shall be regulated in the pertinent agreement.


The Federal Government and the Länder agree on measures of action in the Joint Science Conference (GWK), which was established by the Federal and State Heads of Government on the basis of article 91b GG. The GWK began its work on 1 January 2008.

The foundation of the GWK's work is the GWK Agreement and its implementation agreements. These legal foundations especially regulate which fields and institutions the joint research funding covers, as well as the funding key which stipulates the proportions of funding from the Federal Government and the Länder.

Joint funding by the Federal Government and the Länder

More than a quarter of all state funding is in the form of institution-based support to institutions funded jointly by the Federal Government and the Länder. The Federal Government is responsible for providing two thirds of these funds.

Together the Federal Government and the Länder fund,

as research institutions the:

as research institutions within a foundation:


as funding agencies for research projects:

Sole funding by the Federal Government

The Federal Government provides sole funding through annual grants or endowment capital to the following

as research institutions:

  • federal institutions with research tasks connected with their autonomous activities within the framework of the work of the respective Federal Ministry to whose sphere of action they belong;
  • the Max Weber Foundation (formerly the DGIA) with its German Humanities Institutes in London, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Washington and Warsaw, as well as the German Forum for Art History in Paris,  the German Institute for Japan Studies in Tokyo, and the Orient Institute in Beirut and Istanbul.

as funding agencies for research projects:

as institutions for promoting young scientists by means of scholarships and other forms of individual funding the:

  • German National Merit Foundation,
  • Cusanuswerk - Bischöfliche Studienförderung,
  • Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst,
  • Hans Böckler Foundation,
  • Foundation of German Industry for Qualifications and Cooperation - Studienförderwerk Klaus Murmann,Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Heinrich Böll-Foundation,
  • Friedrich Ebert Foundation,
  • Rosa Luxemburg Foundation,
  • Friedrich Naumann Foundation and
  • Hanns Seidel Foundation.

Remit of the BMBF

Furthermore the BMBF supervises the legality of actions taken by:

Additional information

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(URL: http://www.bmbf.de/de/142.php)

Publications

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(URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/publications/)