The remarkable study received international coverage and drew attention to a young and energetic research institution that may play a leading international role in evolutionary anthropology. The MPIEA was founded in 1997 in the former East Germany as part of an attempt to create "a single research landscape," as the political catch phrase called it, in the reunited federation. Since reunification, 20 new Max Planck Institutes have been built in eastern Germany, bringing the total in Germany to 80.
The Leipzig institute employs 250, including 31 full-time scientists and 78 junior scientists and guest researchers. The total is expected to increase to 350 toward the end of the year, when the institute takes up residence in a new $33 million (US), 130,000-square-foot facility. Max Planck Institutes are largely publicly funded, with the German federal and provincial governments equally contributing 85% of the budgets. Membership fees and donations pay remaining costs. ...
