The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (German: Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren) is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 16 scientifically, technically, biologically, and medically oriented research centers with altogether some 30,000 employees (some 9,700 staff are scientists) and an annual budget that is about 3 billion euros. The official mission of the Association is "to answer great and pressing questions of science, society, and economics". The namesake of the association is the German physiologist and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz.
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Members of the Helmholtz Association are:
The works of the centres are categorised into programmes, which are divided into six research groups. The Helmholtz centres are grouped according to which research group they belong to:
The annual budget of the Helmholtz Association amounts to more than two billion euros, of which about 70% is raised from public funds, while the rest is contributed by the members from external funds. The public funds are provided to 90% by the federal government and the rest by the states.