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The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres provides top scientific achievements to society, science and industry for addressing the major challenges of today.

The Helmholtz Association is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. Its work follows the tradition of the great natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894). Scientists in 17 Helmholtz Centres work on a wide variety of topics in areas ranging from health, the environment and energy to fundamental research such as elementary particle physics.

Facts and Figures

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17 research centres
(scientific-technical and biological-medical research centres)

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approx. 30,000 staff; approx. 9,700 scientists
and 4,500 visiting scientists (in 2009)

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international collaborative research projects in
Europe, America and Asia.

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annual budget:
approx. 3.0 billion euro

Organisational Details

The Helmholtz Association is comprised of 17 scientific-technical and biologicalmedical research centres with approximately 30,000 staff, including 9,700 scientists and 4,500 visiting scientists.

Research Activities

Helmholtz Centres perform top-level research in strategic programmes in six core fields: energy, earth and environment, health, key technologies, structure of matter, aeronautics, space and transport. The Association’s research centres provide the most modern scientific infrastructure, particularly large-scale facilities and instrumentation also used by the international scientific community.

International Cooperation

The Helmholtz Association maintains research projects with international collaboration in Europe, America and Asia. It is involved in promoting young scientists at an international level with a special focus on China and Russia.

Research Budget

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The total budget of the Helmholtz Association amounts to approximately 3.0 billion euros, with two thirds provided by public sponsors (with a 9:1 ratio allocated by Federal and State (“Länder”) authorities). Each individual Helmholtz Centre is responsible for acquiring the remaining 30% as contract funding from public- and private-sector sponsors.