Planck Society has produced 18 Nobel
onment. With subsidiaries and offices, not
laureates. It is number two and the only
to mention cooperation agreements, in no
European research organisation in the
less than nine European countries, two in
Top 10 in the worldwide ISI Citation Index
each of North and South America, seven
of the most-quoted research works in 22
Asian, three African and Arab countries, as
fields.
well as in Australia, it has a truly global research reach.
The Helmholtz Association conducts cutting-edge research in six fields: energy,
The Leibniz Association is the umbrella
earth and environment, health, aeronaut-
connecting 89 independent research insti-
ics, space and transport, key technologies
tutions that range in focus from the natural
and matter. The Helmholtz scientists con-
sciences, engineering and environmental
centrate on highly complex systems and
sciences through economics, spatial and so-
projects. With 14,700 scientists and 6,200
cial sciences to the humanities. A focus
doctoral students at the 18 independent
common to the 9,200 researchers is knowl-
Helmholtz centres, including the German
edge transfer to policy makers, industry,
Aerospace Center (DLR), which has 16 sites
and the general public.
alone, it is Germany’s biggest research orThe German Research Foundation (DFG),
ganisation.
Europe’s largest organisation of this kind, is
With 66 institutes, the Fraunhofer Gesell-
responsible for funding science and re-
schaft is considered to be the largest ap-
search. Alongside its head office in Bonn,
plication-oriented development organisa-
the DFG maintains offices in China, Japan,
tion in Europe. Its most important fields
India, Russia, North and Latin America, and
of research are health, security, communi-
promotes cooperation between researchers
cation, mobility, energy, and the envir-
in Germany and fellow researchers abroad.
2012
2014
2015
The European Patent Office honours Heidelberg physicist Josef
Bille, the inventor of the eye laser,
for his lifetime achievement. With
almost 100 patents, Bille paved
the way for present-day eye surgery using lasers.
Stefan Hell, a Director at the Max
Planck Institute for Biophysical
Chemistry, together with two US
researchers receives the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry for developing
high resolution fluorescence
microscopy.
At almost 90 percent, the changeover to two-cycle Bachelor’s and
Master’s degree courses is for the
most part complete. State-regulated degree courses, Medicine
and Law are an exception.