About the project
The Reseach Infrastructure NUKLEUS (NUM Clinical Epidemiology and Study Platform) supports researchers in the planning, implementation and evaluation of large-scale clinical and epidemiological studies conducted within the Network University Medicine (NUM).
NUKLEUS emerged from two sub-projects of the first NUM funding period (April 2020-December 2021): the National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON) and the Covid-19 Data Exchange Platform (CODEX). The concept, which is largely based on the study platform of the German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), has proven its worth and is an independent project in the NUM infrastructure line in NUM 2.0. NUKLEUS covers the entire process chain of study support from study design, integration of the study centres, implementation of the ethical and legal framework, quality assurance, study initiation, data and biosample management, fair use of the data and biosamples obtained, data analysis and data re-use.
The vision of NUKLEUS is that studies on the best ideas for the most important medical questions can be realised in high quality within a few weeks and thus provide answers with high informative value. This is made possible by a ready-to-use, scalable and powerful infrastructure and the involvement of leading experts from university medicine.
When scientific teams can focus on scientific questions in research with the support of NUKLEUS, this leads to greater efficiency, accuracy and a broader spectrum of results. NUCLEUS thus supports the efforts that have been made as part of the NUM to manage the pandemic and national pandemic preparedness. In future, NUKLEUS should also make it possible to initiate nationwide studies without losing time.
The development of new infrastructures requires the careful coordination of researchers' needs and the practical implementation of plans to fulfil these needs. The continuous further development and adaptation of processes to constantly changing conditions plays a central role here. For NUKLEUS, this means on the one hand that the technical requirements for collaboration must be expanded and optimised - for example for the joint use, processing, storage and publication of documents, data and biosamples. On the other hand, the points of contact between the sub-projects and locations must be identified and harmonised.
Another challenge is to develop effective and efficient communication strategies. The doctors and scientists involved are mostly involved in medical care themselves, which takes up a large proportion of resources, especially in a pandemic situation.
The NUKLEUS team develops and operates the Reseach Infrastructure at NUM for the efficient joint planning, implementation and evaluation of clinical and clinical-epidemiological studies in order to make high-quality data, biosamples and analysis results widely available to the scientific community.
The infrastructure creates a space for trusting collaboration, comprises ready-to-use solutions and interdisciplinary expertise in scientific methodology, organisation and technologies and implements these quickly and in the best possible way.
It works supra-regionally and across sectors, co-operates with existing infrastructures and initiatives and is internationally compatible. The focus is on scientific quality and the fair involvement of all groups involved in the process, from the patients to the scientists involved to the study centres.
People in the NUM
