University medicine in a national network
Since the start of the new funding phase in July 2025, the governance of the NUM has been geared towards the long-term operation of the network. To this end, the National Task Force (NTF) set up for acute crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic has been replaced by the NUM Coordination Committee (NKA).
The NUM will be organised by a Coordination Office at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin until the transfer to an independent institution provided for in the coalition agreement. Each of the 37 participating institutions of university medicine has a Local Coordination Unit (LCU), which coordinates the administrative implementation of the numerous NUM research projects on site.
Scientific and strategic advice for the NUM Coordination Office and the NUM Coordination Committee is provided by an international International Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), the NUM Community Platform (advisory board) and the committee of site spokespersons.
The network works closely with other stakeholders, expert networks, specialist groups and initiatives in the field of clinical research and pandemic preparedness. These include, for example, non-university research institutions, the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI), the Medical Informatics Initiative and the German Centres for Health Research (DZG).
Financing
The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is funding the NUM. In the first funding phase, which ran from April 2020 to December 2021, the network was established and joint research by German university medicine to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic was strengthened. The BMFTR (then still the Federal Ministry of Education and Research) provided 150 million euros for this purpose. For the second funding phase from January 2022 to the end of June 2025, the NUM had around 240 million euros at its disposal. Since 1 July 2025, the NUM has been funded in the third funding period with a five-year term. In order to secure the structures created in the NUM in the long term, the BMFTR has promised to perpetuate the network.