GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences is the largest infrastructure institution for the Social Sciences in Germany. More than 250 employees in three locations (Mannheim, Cologne, Berlin) render substantial, nationally and internationally relevant research-based infrastructure services. "Established in 1986 as German Social Science Infrastructure Services and publicly prefunded , GESIS consisted of the three independent institutes Social Science Information Centre (IZ) in Bonn, Central Archive for Empirical Social Research in Cologne (ZA), and Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) in Mannheim. Since 2007 GESIS has merged into one institute. In November 2008 GESIS has assumed the name addition ""Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences"" to emphasize its membership to the Leibniz Association. "