As a legally responsible foundation, the Institute has four bodies according to its statue: The Curatorship, the Directorate, the Institute Council and the Scientific Advisory Council.
The Curatorship serves as the supervisory body of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut; its constituent meeting took place on 15 March 2019. The curatorship advises the Directorate and supervises its management as well as the preservation of the foundation's purpose. It has a comprehensive right to information.
State Secretary Dr. Eva Gümbel (Chair), Ministry of Science, Research and Equality in Hamburg
Dr. Maximilian Müller-Härlin (Vice Chair), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Dr. Florian Kumb, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
Joachim Knuth, Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren, Universität Hamburg
Christian Mihr, Reporters without Borders Germany
Oliver Schenk, with the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM)
Dr. Claas Schüddekopf, Ministry of Culture and Media in Hamburg
Eva Sommer, Medienanstalt Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein
The Institute is managed and legally represented by the Board of Directors, which currently consists of two members who represent the Institute's research perspectives as well as its commercial management.
The Directorate consists of the managing director Dipl.-Kffr. Kristina Hein and the 
legal scientist Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz (chairman).
The directorate determines the research plan. The scientific directors are appointed by the Curatorship for a period of five years.
In the performance of its duties, the Board of Directors is supported by the Institute Council, which includes the Board of Directors tself, the scientific speakers as well as other representatives of the scientific and non-scientific staff.
The international Scientific Advisory Council advises the Institute’s Board of Directors on scientific work and strategic issues. The members of the Scientific Advisory Council are:
Prof. Dr. Helena Bilandzic, Professor of Communication Sciences with focus on Media Reception and Media Effects at the University of Augsburg
Prof. Dr. Margreth Lünenborg, Institute for Media and Communication Studies at Freie Universität Berlin
Prof. Dr. Boris P. Paal, M.Jur. (Oxford) (Vice Chair), Professor Civil Law and Information Law, Data and Media Law at the University of Leipzig
Prof. Dr. Manuel Puppis (Chair), Professor of Media Systems and Media Structures at the Departement of Communication and Media Research DCM at Universitét de Fribourg, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Siegert, Professor of Media Economics & Management at the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich and Vice President for Education and Student Affairs, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Florent Thouvenin, Professor für Informations- und Kommunikationsrecht an der Universität Zürich
Data Protection Official: Jennifer Jähn-Nguyen, datenschutz nord GmbH
Equal Opportunities Officers: Katharina Mosene, Julia Prütz, Louise Sprengelmeyer
Ombudspersons: Prof. Dr. Michel Clement, Prof. Dr. Margarete Schuler-Harms
Chairman: Dr. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt
Deputy Chairman: Cindy Hesse
Additional Members: Irene Broer, Erik Pfeiffer, Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wagner
The Leibniz Institute for Media Research │Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) is a foundation without endowment capital, which pursues exclusively charitable purposes and makes no profits. Since it was admitted to the Leibniz Association in 2019, the Institute has been funded on a pro rata basis by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the joint research funding of the Länder, represented by the Ministry of Science, Research and Equal Opportunities and Districts (BWFGB) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In addition, there are other grants and donations as well as revenues from third-party funded projects and publishing products. As a non-profit foundation, the Institute is able to issue donation receipts.
The overall budget for 2020 amounted to 5.167 million Euros, comprising 1.950 T€ in institutional funding from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, 470 T€ in special funding from the BWFG, 435 T€ in other grants and donations (NDR Media, Medienstiftung Hamburg, ZDF), 2.310 million Euros in third-party funding and 2 T€ in other income.The Hans-Bredow-Institut was founded on 30 May 1950 by the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk [Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation] (NWDR) and Universität Hamburg as a foundation under civil law with legal capacity. The Institute was named after Hans Bredow (1879-1959), State Secretary and Commissioner for Broadcasting in the Ministry of Posts in the Weimar Republic, who made a name for himself in the Weimar Republic as a pioneer of the technical development of broadcasting. He was awarded the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit in 1954 for his services in establishing the organisational structures of broadcasting in the Federal Republic.
Since 2019, the institute has been a member of the Leibniz Association under the new name Leibniz Institute for Media Research │ Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI).
The purpose of the independent non-profit foundation Leibniz Institute for Media Research │ Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) is to conduct media research, especially in the field of radio and television as well as other electronic media, in an interdisciplinary manner and to make the results available to science, practice and the public. More about the history see below.
