Latin America

Diverse collaborations

Latin American countries offer outstanding conditions for cutting-edge research in key future-oriented fields such as biodiversity and climate change. The region is also home to a wealth of highly skilled researchers. The Max Planck Society has cultivated strong partnerships across Latin America for decades, drawing on a range of instruments to foster international scientific collaboration.

Founded in 2011 as a partner institute of the Max Planck Society, the Biomedicine Research Institute of Buenos Aires (IBioBA) in Buenos Aires serves as a key hub for collaboration in molecular biology with several Max Planck Institutes across the region. Currently, there are 25 partner and tandem groups operating in Latin American countries across all research sections. Additionally, more than 150 joint research projects are underway between Max Planck Institutes and Latin American partner institutions.

The Max Planck Society maintains long-term partnership agreements with numerous national funding agencies, including CONICET in Argentina, ANII in Uruguay, FAPESP and CNPq in Brazil, ANID in Chile, MINCIENCIAS in Colombia, and CONARE in Costa Rica. These collaborations often result in regular joint calls for research proposals. The Latin America Department continues to actively expand these networks, working to establish new partnerships throughout the region.

In 2024, over 800 guest and early-career researchers from Latin America conducted research at Max Planck Institutes. The contribution of young scientists is a cornerstone of the Max Planck Society’s international strategy and has fueled a steadily growing exchange with Latin American countries over the years. Programs such as the International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS) and the Max Planck Schools offer outstanding young researchers the opportunity to receive world-class training.

Instruments of cooperation with Latin America

Partner groups

Partner groups are led by outstanding early-career researchers who have spent at least six months at a Max Planck Institute and, at the time of nomination, hold—or are expected to hold—a position at a research institution, ideally in their home country. From this base, they are able to continue the research lines initiated in collaboration with the MPI.

These partner groups are supported by the Max Planck Society’s General Administration with annual funding of €20,000 for a period of five years. Nominations require the written endorsement of a Max Planck Institute director. For further inquiries, please contact Annette Dvorani.

As of 2025, there are 17 active Partner Groups across Latin America.

Tandem Groups

Max Planck Tandem Groups are designed to strengthen Max Planck Society’s research ties with Latin America. These groups are established through close collaboration between individual Max Planck Institutes and Latin American research and funding institutions. Coordinated by the Latin America Division of the Max Planck Society’s General Administration, outstanding young Latin American scientists are selected through competitive international calls to establish and lead their own research groups. These groups are jointly supported by a Latin American partner institution and a collaborating Max Planck Institute.

At present, there are 8 active Tandem Groups in the region.

Research Projects

In several Latin American countries—including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay—national funding agencies regularly launch joint calls for research proposals. These initiatives support collaboration between researchers at all career stages and their counterparts at Max Planck Institutes, in coordination with the Max Planck Society’s Latin America Division.

The projects are primarily funded by national agencies, as well as by ministries of research and technology or regional research foundations.

Information on current calls for proposals.

Symposia and International Events

International workshops, conferences, and symposia are key instruments for fostering scientific exchange and strengthening international research networks. In Latin America, leaders of partner and tandem groups regularly organize these events with great success, contributing to vibrant academic dialogue across disciplines.

Co-financing from the Max Planck Society is available upon request and subject to application.

Further information on kick-off workshops.

For any inquiries, please contact Annette Dvorani.

Multinational research institutions with MPG participation in Latin America

• ATTO

  The Amazon region is home to the largest remaining tropical rainforest on Earth. As early as the 1960s, the former Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Plön (now the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology) established a tropical ecology research station in Manaus in partnership with the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA). Building on this longstanding collaboration, the Max Planck Institutes for Chemistry and Biogeochemistry now conduct ecological and atmospheric research at the Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) in Manaus. Since 2015, this state-of-the-art facility has featured a 300-meter-high climate observation tower—one of the tallest of its kind in the world.

• APEX

  The high plateaus and deserts of the Chilean Andes offer ideal conditions for high-performance telescopes, thanks to their clear skies and extremely dry air. In the 1990s, construction began on several major observatories—such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI)—for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Cerro Paranal.

  In 2003, the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy led the establishment of the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Atacama Desert. APEX played a key role as a technological forerunner to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), one of the world’s most advanced telescopes, which has been fully operational since 2013.

• CTA

  The Atacama Desert—one of the driest and most remote regions on Earth, and a true paradise for astronomers—has been chosen as the site for the Southern Hemisphere branch of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Located less than ten kilometers southeast of the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory, this site will host a comprehensive array designed to detect gamma rays across the full energy spectrum, from 20 GeV to 300 TeV.

  Spanning four square kilometers, the array will include all three classes of CTA telescopes: four large telescopes for low-energy gamma rays, 25 medium-sized telescopes for the core energy range, and 70 small telescopes to capture the highest-energy gamma rays. The Max Planck Institutes for Physics (Munich) and for Nuclear Physics (Heidelberg) are playing a major role in the development and implementation of the CTA project.