Transparency

How MERICS is funded 

MERICS publishes an annual overview of income and funding sources.

Who supported our independent China research in 2025?

Providing 54.64 percent of total funding, Stiftung Mercator was the most important institutional funder of MERICS in 2025. The MERICS budget for the year amounted to 3,926,024.25 euros. In the third funding phase (2024-2028), Stiftung Mercator is supporting MERICS with funding totalling 12 million euros. 

Since 2024, MERICS has received institutional funding from the German federal government. In 2025, an annual grant of 500,000 euros was awarded from these funds. 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 2025 (in alphabetical order).

Public sector:  

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

Foundations and associations:

• Bertelsmann Stiftung
• Robert Bosch Stiftung

At the end of 2025, MERICS members included 57 organizations, companies, and institutions. Of these, 30 belonged to the public sector and 27 to the private sector. MERICS members have privileged access to pertinent China expertise. In 2025, contributions totaled 427,244.47 euros.

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 2025, no single member's contribution exceeded 0.5 percent of the total budget.