Germany:Germany/14/en

As a federal institute within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is the government's central scientific institution for disease surveillance and prevention as well as for biomedical research. The RKI's main tasks include the identification, surveillance and prevention of diseases, especially infectious diseases. According to its legal mandate the RKI provides the scientific basis for health-related political decision making. The RKI informs and advises the competent federal ministries, in particular the BMG, the scientific community, and increasingly, the general public.