The Managing Director

The Managing Director of the Helmholtz Association supports, advises and represents the President in the performance of his duties and manages the Association’s head offices in Berlin and Bonn with their branches in Brussels, Moscow and Beijing.

As a special representative in administrative matters, she represents the Helmholtz Association externally and internally. Alongside the President and the Vice-Presidents, the Managing Director is a member of the Helmholtz Association's Executive Board.

Managing Director Franziska Broer. Image: Helmholtz/David Ausserhofer

The Managing Director’s responsibilities

The Managing Director is primarily responsible for the procedures regarding the allocation of funds under the Association’s program-oriented funding and investments in further expansion. He ensures that the resources are allocated transparently and is responsible for key output figures in terms of overall coordination of the Helmholtz Centers. The Managing Director also provides support on the establishment of long-term partnerships between research and business via technology transfer instruments (spin-off support and the Validation Fund).

The Managing Director is nominated by the President and elected for a term of five years by the general assembly. The Managing Director may be re-elected.

The current Managing Director: Franziska Broer

Franziska Broer studied economics and law at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau. In addition, she obtained a degree in Consumer Health Care from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Following her studies, she worked at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch in the Helmholtz Association as personal assistant to the Administrative Directorate. Shortly afterwards, she also assumed the role of head of the Controlling unit. She began working at the Helmholtz Association’s Head Office in 2007 as head of Controlling, going on to assume the additional role of head of Administration in early 2011. She became Administrative Director at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research on 1 January 2014. In September 2020 she was re-elected for a further five-year term of office.