Structural Innovations for Academic Medicine

Medical research is often closely linked to healthcare. It is therefore subject to constraints which do not exist for non-clinical research. To make it as effective as possible, medical research must be given new leeway through structural changes.

The performance and effectiveness of research depend on far more than the resources available. They are essentially also a question of the structures in which research is organized and the mechanisms which regulate the distribution of resources. Due to its close connections with medical care, medical research in particular is often integrated in structures and mechanisms which do not encourage the free development of research potential. Funding is therefore also being provided within the framework of the health research programme for measures which promote or trigger the necessary structural changes.

Integrated Research and Treatment Centres (IFBs)

Funding is provided for the sustainable development of an IFB providing research and care in an important disease area. This will determine the profile of both the medical faculty and the related university hospital. It is intended to strengthen the translation of results and the mutual stimulation of basic and patient-related clinical research and to speed up the transfer of findings to clinical application (i.e. to new, more effective therapies). Up to ten IFBs will be determined for funding in two rounds of applications in 2006 and 2007. Up to 300 million Euro can be made available for the maximum funding period of ten years.

Competence Networks in Medicine

The establishment of competence networks in medicine is one measure for the trans-regional pooling of competences in a disease area. The BMBF initiated the competence networks in the late 1990s because, although Germany has good competences in medical research, these are widely scattered and scarcely visible. It still takes an average of ten years before research results actually reach the patient in his sickbed. But the transfer of information in the other direction is also unsatisfactory. Burning issues in day-to-day medicine are not taken up sufficiently by research.

The BMBF is currently funding 17 competence networks on diseases which are characterized by great suffering on the part of patients and high costs for the healthcare system. In total, the BMBF is providing about 225 million Euro for these 17 networks. Competence networks in medicine have proven to be a highly successful funding model. The competence networks in medicine have created structures which must be used, developed further and, above all, made more flexible in the new "Disease-related Competence Networks". About 500 million Euro will be provided for these disease-related networks over the next 12 years. The first funding announcement for such a disease network was published in 2006 and dealt with dementia. Further announcements are due to follow.

Many results of these funding measures are described in the BMBF's brochure "Von der Forschung in die Versorgung - Kompetenznetze in der Medizin".

Development of medical research in the new Länder

Under a special measure, the BMBF started to fund clinical research in Eastern Germany directly after German reunification. This funding was based on recommendations issued by the Science Council in 1991 regarding academic medicine in the new Länder. The aim was to promote the development of efficient clinical research at Eastern German universities and to thus contribute to a homogeneous and differentiated research environment. Funding is being provided under three successive measures (NBL 1, 2, 3) between 1991 and 2008. In total, over 150 million Euro have been made available.

The first two rounds of funding (NBL1, NBL 2) focused on improving methodological know-how and the model development of independent research structures in priority areas. The aim of the third step "Improving the Efficiency of Clinical Research in Medical Faculties in the New Länder including Berlin (Charité)" consists in supporting innovative internal processes in the faculties receiving funding, thus leading to the more efficient use of resources provided for research and to an enhancement of existing scientific strengths in the sense of profiling.

The documentation of the final conference on this funding measure, which took place in Greifswald on 10 and 11 May 2007, is available under: http://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/_media/Dokumentation_gesamt.pdf