The MLW is a basic research project with the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, funded in the framework of the Academies‘ Programme of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German States. It is financed equally by the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities and the Free State of Bavaria, managed by a project committee and an advisory board, supporting and advising the committee.

The Austrian Academy of Sciences is supporting the dictionary’s progress by dispatching and funding one scientific employee, the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences is regularly dispatching fellows at own cost, so they can learn the craft of lexicography at the MLW. 

The project itself is being realised by scientific associates.