It was founded in 2000 by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) to promote cutting-edge research in the field of molecular plant biology.

[1] The institute is named after Gregor Mendel, who is also known as the "Father of genetics," due to his scientific work and the fact that he studied at the University of Vienna in the mid-19th century.

Their main task is to provide feedback on the quality of scientific work to the Institute's management and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The research groups also use services provided by the Vienna BioCenter Core Facilities (VBCF) such as high-throughput plant phenotyping and next generation sequencing.

For this purpose, the GMI has developed quiz search mobile games on the topic of plants in Vienna (Botanic Quest, Naturdenkmäler Wien Quest) as well as an information platform for children (gmi4kids).