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The Max Planck Society

ASPERA National Day

Hamburg, Germany

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The Max Planck Society

Advancing innovative and interdisciplinary research at the frontiers of knowledge

Providing competitive research conditions for excellent researchers

Promoting young researchers and international cooperation

Devoted to basic research/open to application

Mission

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Basic research at the Max Planck Society

The Max Planck Society’s scientists work in selected areas, whenever these areas

can open up new directions for research

are not (yet) represented at universities

require special funding

must be set up for the especially long term

enable the training of specialised junior scientists

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Facts and Figures of theMax-Planck-Society

12,434 staff members

plus 10,900 junior and guest scientists

annual budget > € 1.3 billion

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Locations of the 78 MPIs

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Autonomy of Max Planck Institutes

Each Max Planck Institute / Scientific Director:

determines its own

research topics

chooses its research structure (depart-ments/

projects)

chooses its collaboration partners, both foreign and domestic

(other MPIs, universities, public research institutions, or industry) as well as the form of collaboration

acquires third-party

funds

manages its budget

recruits its own personnel (incl. junior scientists)

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Structure of a Max-Planck-InstituteStructure of a Max-Planck-Institute

I n t e r – I n s t i t u t i o n a l P r o j e c t s

evaluates scientific performance and advises the institute.

Scientific Advisory

Board

Board of Trustees

supports institute in its local and public relations.

Director Dept. D

Director Dept. C

Director Dept. B

Director Dept. A

Scientific Management

Rotating management duties

Head of junior

research group

Head of junior

research group

AdministrationLibrary, Laboratories, IT

Service facilities

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Continual Scientific Renewal

Institutes undergo continual evaluation and adjustment of research areas and goals to meet international standards.

Institutes take up new research topics as a result of appointments or newly founded institutes.

Institutes or institute departments are closed

if research goal achieved, if research suitably established at universities, and if no suitable scientist available.

New programs or forms of organization are developed (e.g., research groups at universities).

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• Regular Evaluation Performed every 2 yrs. by the scientific advisory boards of the institutes

• Extended evaluation every 6 yrs.

• IMPRS

Ex Post Evaluation

• Establishing institutes

• Appointments

• Program concepts

• Concepts for individual scientific proposals

Ex Ante Evaluation

• System Evaluations commissioned by donors and granting agencies

• Structure oriented presidential committee

• Internal analysis of the activities and the performance

Others

Peer Review

Types of EvaluationTypes of Evaluation

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•projects•appointments•new institutes•shifts in focus

•closures

Presid

en

t

Institu

teS

ectio

nS

enateSenate Planning Committee

Presidential Committee

Perspective CommissionAppointment Committee

Scientific Advisory BoardBoard of Directors

Levels of Research Planning in the MPS

Research Planning & EvaluationResearch Planning & Evaluation

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International Staff

262 institute directors (October 2006), including 72 foreigners (= 27.5 %) coming from 24 countries

Almost 50% of doctoral students and 80% of postdocs are from countries other than Germany.

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Research Partners Worldwide (2005)

2,068 international projects including 5,139 partners in 108 countries

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Sections of the Max Planck Society

Chemistry, Physics, and Technology Section

Biology and Medicine Section

Human Sciences Section

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Structures and legalities of human thought and actions –from the individual to the state system,

in historical perspective and as a future outlook

Cultural Sciences

HumanitiesJurisprudence

Social and Behavioural Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences Section

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Structure and function of the animate world from virus to man, from molecule to ecological system

Plant Research Neuro-Science

Structural & Cell Biology

Developmental Biology/Genome Research

Immuno-/Infection Biology/Molecular Medicine

Zur Anzeige wird der QuickTime™ Dekompressor “Photo - JPEG”

benötigt.

Biology and Medicine Section

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Structure of the world and the universeatoms, molecules, materials and technologies

complex proceedings and systems

Astronomy Chemistry

Physics Geological Sciences

Mathematics Materials Sciences

Chemistry, Physics and Technology Section

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Locations of Astronomical Max Planck Institutes

Gravitational Physics (AEI)

Extraterrestrial Physics

Astrophysics

Physics

Nuclear PhysicsAstronomy

Chemistry

Radio Astronomy

Solar System Research

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Research Topics at the Institutes

MPI for Physics, Munich

neutrino astrophysics

physics and astrophysics of weakly interacting dark-matter candidates

phenomenology of high energy physics

MPI for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg

neutrino astrophysics

particle astrophysics

gamma ray astrophysics

Astroparticle Physics in the MPG

H.E.S.S.

Magic

CRESST Detector Module

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Projects, Collaborations in Astroparticle Physics

Astroparticle Physics

H.E.S.S. (MPI for Nuclear Physics/ Windhoek, Namibia)

MAGIC (MPI for Physics/ Roque de los Muchachos, Canary Islands)

CRESST (MPI for Physics/ Gran Sasso, Italy)

CAST (MPI for Physics/ CERN, France)

Neutrino Astrophysics

GERDA (MPI for Physics, Nuclear Physics/ Gran Sasso, Italy)

Borexino (MPI for Nuclear Physics/ Gran Sasso, Italy)

IceCube (MPI for Nuclear Physics, Emmy Noether Res. Group/ South Pole)

Gallex/GNO, completed (MPI for Nuclear Physics/ Gran Sasso, Italy)

LENS, completed (MPI for Nuclear Physics/ Gran Sasso, Italy)

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Thank you for your attention!

Dr. Stefan EchingerHead of the Departmentfor Institutes’ Liaison Max Planck Society80084 MünchenTel.: ++49-89-2108-1284Email: echinger@gv.mpg.de