Administration

The administration of the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) sees itself as a service provider for scientists at the institute. It builds the framework in personnel, finance, purchasing, business trips and more that is necessary for excellent research. Step-by-step digital workflows are being integrated to make the administration more sustainable, more efficient and more effective. At the same time individual responsibility, appreciation, diligence and reliability are crucial for a modern administration.

Personnel

Equal opportunities, family-friendly working conditions, personnel development, health management and personnel selection processes are current topics in the area personnel. Roundabout 200 members of staff with employment or guest contracts currently work at ZMT (as of 31/12/2016). On average ZMT employs 70 scientific staff and 50 guest scientists financed through stipends plus students assistants from the local universities. An addition 50 members of staff including trainees work as support to scientists in infrastructure and science management. Around one third of all staff are financed by third-.party funding (as of 31/12/2016).

Third-party funded projects

The administration currently supports 27 third-party-funded projects by nine funding bodies (as of 01/07/2017). The German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the European Union and the Leibniz Competition are the main third-party-donors. The administration supports scientists in proposal, financial controlling and the administrative processing of their projects.

Purchasing

The central Purchasing at ZMT is responsible for all formalities concerning ordering including comparison of cost estimates, commissioning, tendering, deliveries and complaints. Customs processing necessary for expedition to ZMT research regions is also a task of the purchasing team.


Business Trips

The administration supports ZMT staff in travel planning including bookings, residence and research visa, overseas health insurance. It also issues advances for foreseeable costs and gives advice on how to submit travel expense claims.

… and more

“And more” includes a large number of tasks such as the checking and administration of contracts with cooperation partners and external service providers. Topics such as data protection, prevention of corruption and risk management are also dealt with by the administration.