The Friedrich Miescher Laboratory (FML) of the Max Planck Society was founded in 1969 to offer highly qualified junior scientists in the area of biology an opportunity to establish independent research groups and pursue their own line of research within a five-year period (extensions possible). The group leaders are elected by a committee of scientists from diverse areas and institutions on the basis of a public tendering procedure. While at the FML, they can use modern, well-equipped laboratories and work in teams tailored to their ideas. The laboratory is not headed by a director. Instead, the group leaders take turns in representing the FML, and its administrative and organizational interests. Furthermore, all group leaders jointly manage the funds available to the laboratory.
There is no specification as to which kind of biological research should be conducted at the FML, and the focus of research changes with the appointment of each new group leader. In the past, research interests have included developmental biology, neurobiology, cell biology, psychology and many other areas of modern biology.