How many employees work at Robert Koch Institute?

About Robert Koch Institute

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is a federal institute within the scope of the Federal Ministry of Health. The RKI is the federal government's central institution in the field of disease surveillance and prevention and therefore also the federal government's central institution in the field of application- and measure-oriented biomedical research. The core tasks of the RKI are the detection, prevention and control of diseases, especially infectious diseases. The tasks include the general legal mandate to develop scientific findings as a basis for health policy decisions. The primary tasks are the scientific investigation, epidemiological and medical analysis and assessment of diseases that are highly dangerous, highly widespread or of high public or health policy importance. The RKI advises the responsible federal ministries, in particular the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), and is involved in the development of norms and standards. It informs and advises the specialist public and, increasingly, the broader public. With regard to the recognition of health hazards and risks, this is increasing RKI performs a central “antenna function” in the sense of an early warning system.