- published: 10 Apr 2014
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The Fraunhofer Society (German: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V. – "Fraunhofer Society for the advancement of applied research", pronounced [ˈfraʊnhoːfɐ]) is a German research organization with 60 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science (as opposed to the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, which works primarily on basic science). It employs around 18,000 people, mainly scientists and engineers, with an annual research budget of about €1.65 billion. Some basic funding for the Fraunhofer Society is provided by the state (the German public, through federal government together with the German Länder, "owns" the Fraunhofer Society), but more than 70% of the funding is earned through contract work, either for government sponsored projects or from industry.
It is named after Joseph von Fraunhofer who, as a scientist, an engineer, and an entrepreneur, is said to have superbly exemplified the goals of the society.
The organization has seven centers in the United States, under the name 'Fraunhofer USA', and three in Asia. In October 2010, Fraunhofer announced that it would open its first research center in South America.
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification and/or dominance patterns in subgroups.
Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.
A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.