The Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden – in short IFW Dresden – is a non-university research institute and a member of the Leibniz Association. It is concerned with modern materials science and combines explorative research in physics, chemistry and materials science with technological development of new materials and products. The research program is focussed on functional materials which hold a key position in many fields of application: superconducting and magnetic materials, thin film systems and nanostructures as well as crystalline and amorphous materials. Further missions of the Institute are the promotion of young scientists and the training of technical staff as well as supplying industrial companies with the Institute's R&D know-how and experience. The IFW Dresden was founded on January 1, 1992 transforming the former Academy Institute to an Institute of the ‘Blaue Liste’. It emerged from the largest materials science center of the former GDR, which was at the time already internationally acknowledged. Since then the IFW developed into a leading institute in selected topics of materials science. The IFW employs about 400 people, among them 190 scientists, mostly physicists, chemists and materials engineers. 80 of them are young scientists working in the IFW on their doctoral thesis. About 100 guest scientists from all over the world come every year for some weeks or months to work at the IFW. The annual budget of 23 Million Euro is supplied by the Federal government and by the German states in equal parts, the latter mainly by the Free State of Saxony. Additionally to institutional funding the IFW Dresden raises project resources of about 5 Million Euro per year.