Acronym | DLR |
---|---|
Established | 1969 |
Headquarters | Cologne (Köln), Germany |
Administrator | Pascale Ehrenfreund |
Budget | € 2.19 billion (2014) |
Website | www.dlr.de |
The German Aerospace Center (German: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.), abbreviated DLR, is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne and it has other multiple locations throughout Germany. The DLR is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in national and international partnerships. In addition to conducting its own research projects, DLR also acts as the German space agency. As such, it is responsible for planning and implementing the German space programme on behalf of the German federal government. As a project management agency, DLR also coordinates and answers the technical and organizational implementation of projects funded by a number of German federal ministries.
DLR has approximately 7400 employees at 16 locations in Germany. It has 29 institutes and facilities, spread over 13 sites, as well as offices in Brussels, Paris and Washington, D.C. DLR has a budget of about 670 million euro to cover its own research, development and operations. Approximately one third of this sum comes from competitively allocated third-party funds (German: Drittmittel). In addition to this, DLR administers around 500 million euro in German funds for the European Space Agency (ESA). In its capacity as project management agency, it manages over 650 million euro in research on behalf of German federal ministries. DLR is a full member of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) and a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.
In the context of DLR's initiatives to promote young research talent, ten DLR School Labs were set up in Berlin-Adlershof, Braunschweig, Bremen, Cologne-Porz, Dortmund, Göttingen, Hamburg-Harburg, Lampoldshausen/Stuttgart, Neustrelitz, and Oberpfaffenhofen over the past years. In the DLR School Labs, school pupils can become acquainted with the practical aspects of natural and engineering sciences by conducting interesting experiments.