Facts and Figures
Legal Form
The Max Planck Society is a non-profit organization under private law in the form of a registered association. Its highest-ranking decision-making body is the Senate. Its members come from major sectors of academic and public life.
The Max Planck Society's Administrative Headquarters with the President's Office are located in Munich.
Institutes
There are 84 institutes and research facilities (as of 1st January 2025); four institutes and one research facility are situated abroad.
Personnel
The Max Planck Society employed a total of 25,740 staff as of 31st December 2024, comprising 21,377 contractually employed individuals, 440 scholarship holders as well as 3,923 guest scientists. Of the contractually employed individuals, 6,737 individuals were employed as Directors, Research Group Leaders or Scientific Research Assistants, another 3,481 as doctoral candidates. Non-scientific activities include 9,024 persons in technology and administration. 641 employees completed an apprenticeship on the reporting date; a further 1,455 persons were employed as student and scientific assistants.
As of 31st December 2024, the proportion of female employees was 45.2 percent. The proportion of women researchers was 24.6 percent at W3 level, 41.7 percent at W2 level and 37.8 percent at the level of scientists employed under the collective agreement for the public sector; in the non-scientific areas it was 55.5 percent.
Among the scientists, the proportion of those from abroad was 57.7 percent – this high proportion can be attributed to the fact the International Max Planck Research Schools particularly recruit international Ph.D. students and that a high number of visiting scientists come from abroad.
Finances
The Max Planck Society is mainly financed by public funds from the federal government and the federal states*. In 2024, this was slightly more than 2.15 billion euros.
In addition, the Max Planck Society and its Institutes receive third party project funding from public and private contributions and from the European Union. The federal and state governments jointly provide the subsidies for the budget of the Max Planck Society.
* The Free State of Saxony requests the following information: "This funding is co-financed by tax revenues on the basis of the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament".