The Leibniz Association (German: Leibniz-Gemeinschaft or Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz) is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines.
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Funding and structure
As of 2026, 96 non-university research institutes and service institutions for science are part of the Leibniz Association. The fields range from natural, life, engineering and environmental sciences to economics, spatial and social sciences and the humanities. The Leibniz Institutes work in an interdisciplinary fashion, and connect basic and applied science. They cooperate with universities, industry, and other partners in different parts of the world. Taken together, the Leibniz Institutes employ 21,400 people and have a budget of €2.3 billion. Leibniz Institutes are funded publicly to equal parts by the federal government and the Federal states (Bundesländer).
Every Leibniz institution is evaluated by the Leibniz Senate regularly, at a minimum of once every seven years. The evaluation is used as a benchmark of quality with respect to the work and research carried out by the institutes.
History
The Leibniz Association is named after the German philosopher, mathematician, scientist and inventor Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). The organization evolved from the "Blaue Liste" (blue list) in former Western Germany and research institutions of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), whose research capability was deemed worth keeping after an evaluation by the German Wissenschaftsrat. The name "Blaue Liste" for a German model for funding science has been retired, and traces back to the color of a dossier.
The Leibniz Association's headquarter is located in Berlin and there is an EU bureau in Brussels. Since 2026, the economist Christoph M. Schmidt acts as president of the Leibniz Association.