Transparency


How MERICS is funded 

For reasons of transparency, MERICS  publishes an annual overview of income and funding sources. 

Who supported our independent China research in 2024?

Providing 52.6 percent of total funding, Stiftung Mercator was the most important institutional funder of MERICS in 2024. The MERICS budget for the year amounted to 3,962,007.60 euros. In the third funding phase (2024-2028), Stiftung Mercator is supporting MERICS with funding totalling 12 million euros. 

In 2024, the German government decided to support MERICS with an annual institutional funding of 500,000 Euros. The governments of France and Japan support the research work of MERICS as part of a strategic partnership.

In addition to Stiftung Mercator, the following sponsors, among others, contributed to the funding of research projects and publications in 2024 (in alphabetical order).

Public sector:  

  • German Federal Foreign Office
  • German Chancellery
  • German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space
  • German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
  • UK Department for Science Innovation and Technology
  • European Commission
  • UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Foundations and associations:

  • Bertelsmann Stiftung
  • Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit
  • Robert Bosch Stiftung

At the end of 2024, MERICS members included 56 organizations, companies, and institutions. Of these, 32 belonged to the public sector and 24 to the private sector. MERICS members have privileged access to pertinent China expertise. In 2024, contributions totaled 240,232.58 euros, of which 108,104.66 euros was attributable to public sector members and 132,127.92 euros to private sector members.

Clients, partners and members have no influence on the institute's strategic planning or on the results of research projects (see principles above in the text). The contributions of individual members were consistently below 5 percent of total membership income. In relation to the total annual budget for 2023, no single member's contribution exceeded 0.5 percent of the total budget.

As an independent, non-profit think tank, we also advise the German Parliament and German government through our research. Since March 29, 2022, MERICS has been listed in the German Lobby Register, alongside many other research institutes. Thus, we follow the code of conduct of an institution listed in the lobby register. You can find us here with the register number R003904.