The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the Network of University Medicine (NUM) from July 2025 in a third funding phase over the next five years. Despite the current difficult budget situation, the BMBF is thus ensuring the continued operation of the nationwide, interdisciplinary network, to which all 37 academic medical centers have joined. The Reseach Infrastructures established in the NUM enable a cooperative collaboration that did not previously exist in this form in Germany. The joint collection and utilisation of medical research data from all 37 academic medical centers is a milestone for clinical research in Germany, which ultimately benefits patients. The new funding enables the NUM to consistently pursue its strategic goals by creating a nationwide study and data space for clinical research and optimising the clinical research landscape for future pandemics and major health crises. The basis for this is highly qualified employees at all locations.
The Federal Minister of Education and Research, Cem Özdemir, explains:
"With the seamless continuation of BMBF funding, the success story of the Network of University Medicine can be continued - a success story that no one would have expected when it was founded in the middle of the corona pandemic five years ago. The NUM emerged from a crisis and has demonstrated how new forms of cooperation can generate added value that primarily benefits patients. The network has strengthened the interaction between research and healthcare. It has created new structures that ensure more effective feedback and close cooperation between the academic medical centers and between research and healthcare as a whole. With the further BMBF funding, we are also paving the way for a possible continuation of the NUM - provided this is in line with the political will of the next federal government."
The Chairman of the Board of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and head of the Network of University Medicine project, Prof Dr Heyo K. Kroemer, explains:
"We are delighted that the NUM can continue on its successful path thanks to the renewed funding from the BMBF. When this network was launched in April 2020, initially "only" as a contribution to crisis management in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not necessarily foreseeable that the NUM would take on a role beyond the pandemic. In the meantime, however, it has become an indispensable player in clinical research. And it still has great potential for development, as the aim is to make Germany an international leader in clinical research once again. Much remains to be done here. The planning security that the BMBF is now providing is important for this."
Background
The Network of University Medicine (NUM) was founded in April 2020 to coordinate clinical COVID-19 research throughout university medicine. Since then, scientists from all 37 German academic medical centers have been working together on joint platforms in interdisciplinary research projects under the umbrella of the NUM. The NUM's research projects are clinically orientated and strive for directly practice-relevant findings in order to provide better care for patients or to better manage major crises in the area of public health. The network has established specialised Reseach Infrastructures for this purpose. These methodological, technical and organisational platforms are maintained in the NUM and can be used for a wide range of clinical research projects, for example to support data collection and data and biosample management for large, multi-centre clinical trials. The NUM's second funding period ends on 30 June 2025. The BMBF has funded the development of the NUM in the first two funding periods with a total of around EUR 390 million.
Press release by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research