Research Facilities in Bavaria
Bavaria's fertile research landscape is based on a sophisticated network of university and non-university research facilities that we would like to introduce to you here:
Max Planck Society in Bavaria
The Max Planck Society 
(MPG) is a research organisation with non-profit status. It is currently funding some 80 institutes (MPI), research centres and work groups which, as internationally competitive "centres of excellence", primarily devote themselves to pure basic research, irrespective of applicability, in selected fields of the natural and social sciences and the humanities. As an integral part of the research landscape outside of the university sector, the MPG sets priorities in top-quality research, thus complementing university research, with which it works in close co-operation.
The Administrative Headquarters of the Max Planck Society has its seat in Munich. The MPG has got 12 facilities in Bavaria:
Five institutes of physics (MPI of Physics , MPI of Astrophysics , MPI for Extraterrestrial Physics , MPI of Quantum Optics and MPI of Plasmaphysics ) have developed in Garching and Munich from the internationally renowned Werner Heisenberg Institute.
The MPI of Neurobiology and MPI of Psychiatry work in the field of medicine.
The MPI of Biochemistry , which is on the Martinsried campus, carries out sophisticated research in the field of biomedicine using the latest molecular-biological techniques, thereby opening up promising possibilities of research into the causes of disease and the development of new approaches to diagnosis and therapy.
Two more institutes (the MPI for Social Law and Social Policy and MPI for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law ) process legal questions of an international kind that are relevant to economics and business.
The MPI for the Science of Light in Erlangen, founded on January 1st 2009, carries out research concerning light and its interactions with material in all dimensions of space and time.
The excellently equipped Research Centre for Ornithology is located at Seewiesen, where Nobel prize-winner Konrad Lorenz used to work.
The Max Planck Institute of Plasmaphysics (IPP) in Garching is one of the world's leading fusion laboratories and enjoys an excellent place in Europe's Fusion Research Association, which is coordinated by the Commission of the European Union. With its work in the field of fusion research and associated disciplines, the IPP is making an important contribution to the sustainable provision of environmentally-friendly energy.
Helmholtz Centres
Germany's 15 large-scale research facilities have joined together to form the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres . Of these, three are located in Bavaria.
The GSF Research Centre for Environmental Health in Neuherberg is a limited company carrying out a broad spectrum of internationally competitive research at top level designed to protect mankind and its environment. The guiding principle of its research programme is the close combination of environmental and health research right through to the stage of clinical medicine, and it is this interface that it defines as its research policy.
In Oberpfaffenhofen, the federal and state governments have brought together the infrastructure for the research and technological development that is necessary for aeronautics and space travel: the Aerospace Research Centre is at the forefront of the key technologies of the 21st century.
In Garmisch, there is the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Atmospheric Environmental Research, Karlsruhe Research Centre , a limited company.
The Fraunhofer Society in Bavaria
The institutes and facilities of the Fraunhofer Society concentrate on applied research. For more information, please refer to www.fraunhofer.de .
Research Facilities of the Leibniz-Association (WGL) in Bavaria
The Leibniz Association currently consists of 86 non-university research institutes. They are involved in research fields whose projects are long-term and usually interdisciplinary. Due to their size, subject or long-term orientation they are not suitable for typical university research. (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Association )
In Bavaria, there are five such research facilties.
- The German Research Institute for Food Chemistry devotes itself, among other things, to characterizing aroma compounds in foods, explaining toxic substructures and publishing nutrition tables.
- The Deutsches Museum is a research museum in Munich that concentrates on the history of the natural sciences in the social context, national systems of innovation from a comparative viewpoint, historical transport research, museum education and research, exhibit and restoration research.
- The Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg is a research museum that collects, investigates and makes accessible the history of art and culture in the German-speaking world. It organizes special exhibitions and scientific conferences and publishes catalogues of collections.
- The Institute for Economic Research monitors and analyzes the course of the economic process, draws up forecasts of economic development, provides information that is used as a basis for decisions in commerce and industry, society and politics, and evaluates political measures from the economic point of view.
- The Institute of Contemporary History devotes itself to German and European history of the 20th century and particularly the time leading up to and during the National-Socialist dictatorship and the post-war period.
Infrastructure and Information
Below are some facilities that provide important infrastructures and sources of information:
Other facilities
Without claiming to provide a complete list, we would like to introduce you to a representative selection of the numerous research facilities in Bavaria not yet mentioned: Please see our German website for this.
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