MPI-SP Diversity Commitment Statement

Institute-specific statement complements Max Planck Diversity Understanding

With the creation of an institute-specific diversity commitment statement, MPI-SP unambiguously underlines the importance of diversity, equity, gender equality and inclusion for the Institute’s work and outreach to both its current and future employees and partners.

The diversity commitment statement as well as the MPI-SP Code of Conduct and points-of-contact now complement the Max Planck Society Core Values, the Max Planck Diversity Understanding as well as the available central contact and reporting points of the Max Planck Society.

A short version of the diversity commitment statement can be found below.

You belong here: MPI-SP’s Diversity Commitment Statement

The Institute’s field of research comes with the traditional challenges to diversity of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics): low proportion of female researchers, low percentage of trans and non-binary people, a community that is predominantly white, male and usually of Western origin. At MPI-SP, we take this as a duty and ambition to address and overcome these historical disparities and to acknowledge and limit power imbalances. We wish to unequivocally emphasise the importance of diversity, equal opportunities and equity, gender equality and inclusion for our Institute.

At MPI-SP, our purpose is to cross boundaries, to think outside the box, to look at issues from different angles, and, above all, to become an epicentre of innovation. We strive to conduct research that exerts a positive influence on society, to develop new solutions that are tangible, and to appeal to a broad audience overall. However, we can only conduct research that takes the needs of all people into account if we also ensure that the community conducting this research is as diverse as the society for which it seeks to develop solutions.

The Institute is also cognizant that diversity plays a crucial role when it comes to attracting talented young scientists from around the world to train the next generation of scientific leaders: a diverse community of students should also learn from an equally diverse faculty. And we believe it is our responsibility to not only provide young researchers with an excellent scientific education, but to also help them become authentic, fair leaders who embrace our values and advocate them beyond their time at MPI-SP.