Helmholtz Association

The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (German: Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren) is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 19 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers (many structured as GmbH private companies). The official mission of the Association is "solving the grand challenges of science, society and industry". Scientists at Helmholtz therefore focus research on complex systems which affect human life and the environment. The namesake of the association is the German physiologist and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz. The annual budget of the Helmholtz Association amounts to €6.19 billion, of which about 70% is raised from public funds. The remaining 30% of the budget is acquired by the 19 individual Helmholtz Centres in the form of contract funding. The public funds are provided by the federal government (90%) and the rest by the States of Germany (10%). The Helmholtz Association was ranked #16 in 2024 by the Nature Index, which measures the largest contributors to papers published in 82 leading journals.