The ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI at GSI was founded in April 2008 in the framework of the Helmholtz Alliance "Cosmic Matter in the Laboratory" and was funded through the Alliance Program of the Helmholtz Association. Since 2015 EMMI is a division of GSI.

Together with its 13 partner institutions it aims at fostering forefront research on matter under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure or density. In total, more than 400 scientists (including students) at the partner institutions perform research in the framework of EMMI. In addition to the partner institutions, EMMI benefits from the expertise of internationally renowned scientists who are closely linked to it as Associated Partners.

The main research areas of EMMI are 

• properties of the quark-gluon plasma and the phase structure of strongly interacting matter and new hadronic states
• structure and dynamics of neutron matter
• electromagnetic plasmas of high energy density
• ultra-cold quantum gases and extreme states in atomic physics,

all understood in a broad sense. The key idea is to conduct this research in an interdisciplinary framework, based upon common underlying concepts for the theoretical and phenomenological understanding of the physical phenomena in those research areas.

The partner institutions have committed themselves to creating 18 senior positions in the framework of the Alliance, including four EMMI Fellow positions at GSI, one for each of the main research fields of EMMI, as well as several full professorships.

The central steering body of EMMI and is the Steering Committee, consisting of the EMMI Director, of one representative from each partner institution, and of two representatives of the Associated Partners. A Scientific Advisory Committee of eight external experts advises EMMI and the SC concerning the scientific program.

A central activity of EMMI is to support, to organize and to host workshops and research programs on topical and interdisciplinary subjects in the area of matter under extreme conditions. As a new workshop format EMMI has introduced so-called Rapid Reaction Task Force (RRTF) meetings. RRTFs are organized to bring together a group of about 20 world-leading experts in order to address and clarify a focussed scientific problem of current interest in intense discussions.

Further, EMMI is strongly committed to fostering the education and training of young researchers through structured training of graduate students. This educational aspect is realized in close collaboration with the graduate schools at the surrounding universities, like for the example the Helmholtz Graduate School for Heavy-Ion Research (HGS-HIRe) and the Heidelberg Graduate School of Fundamental Physics.

The new structures developed within EMMI provide a new and within Europe unique research infrastructure for interdisciplinary research on matter under extreme conditions.