We, Anton Bespalov, Björn Gerlach and Christoph Emmerich, the three co-founders of PAASP, all reside in Germany and we have carefully evaluated various legal forms that PAASP could take. Because of the nature of our activities (especially in the consulting and assessment aspects), legal advice was to select a form that limits founders’ personal liability.
Therefore, we have founded the Partnership for Assessment and Accreditation of Scientific Practice (PAASP) as a Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (GmbH) (German for  ‘company with limited liability’). Operating as a GmbH gives us the required freedom and independence to reach our goals in an unbiased manner, both from the financial point of view and with regard to type and extent of services provided. This is somewhat in contrast to non-profit organisations, where income sources often determine, to a large extent, both the strategy and the use of funds.