Freie Universität Berlin (or FUB) is one of the large universities in Germany with 40000 students and 4300 staff and is a high-class research institution. Lutz Prechelt is professor for Informatics with specialty software engineering. He has performed a number of empirical studies on various aspects of software development; including one of the few large-scale empirical comparisons of programming languages (80 programmers each implemented the same small specification in either C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, or Tcl).

FUB's role in Plat_Forms is primarily in defining the contest and in scientifically evaluating the results. Key person is Professor Lutz Prechelt, head of the Software Engineering research group.

Linux Business Campus Nürnberg e.V. (or LBCN) is an association that promotes contacts between businesses and scientific institutions. The majority (but not all) of its activities have to do with Open Source Software in some way or another. LBCN is organized as a set of projects and contributing to Plat_Forms is one of them.

LBCN's role in Plat_Forms is primarily in acquiring sponsors, contest committee members, and teams. Key person is Richard Seibt, founder and president of LBCN.

'iX is the oldest and most popular magazine for enterprise computing ("professional IT technology") in the German-language region and also a frequent host of conferences and workshops.

The role of 'iX in Plat_Forms is primarily publicity and organization. Key people are Eduard Heilmayr, organizer of the Open Source meets Business conference, and Jürgen Seeger, editor-in-chief of 'iX.