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Faculty of Medicine /
University Hospital Leipzig |
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Research Activities at the Faculty |
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Reports of the Institutes, Clinics and Departments |
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Research Activities at the Faculty |
The year 2000 was especially successful for the Faculty of Medicine regarding the acquisition of external funding. The level of funding grew from DM 17.6 million in the previous year to DM 22.4 million and covered a total of 348 externally funded projects. Notably, this also included an increase in the referee-approved external funding process. This represents the best result achieved so far by the Faculty of Medicine in seeking external funding. This is underlined by international collaboration involving the Faculty, as e.g. 2 approved EU joint projects, whose coordinators work at the Faculty. The efforts towards building up external funding based at the Faculty (e.g. DFG Collaborative Research Centre or Research Groups) should nevertheless be vigorously stepped up, as this is an area with room for improvement. The goal is to use the stock of research findings and the experience of scientists at the Faculty of Medicine gained in the IZKF (Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research, which was declared by the structural assessment committee in autumn 2000 to have made significant advances), in large joint projects such as the Saxon Research Association for Public Health and the Rehaverbund (Rehabilitation Association) Berlin–Brandenburg–Saxony, in medical networks, in priority projects with the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology), and in DFG Collaborative Research Centre for the Faculty's own grant applications, such as for the establishment of DFG Research Groups and DFG Collaborative Research Centre. | |||||||||
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Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics |
One successful application by the University of Leipzig in 2000 was in connection with the DFG's "Bioinformatics Initiative", which resulted in funding for the establishment of a degree course in bioinformatics and the foundation of the IZBI, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioinformatics. Funding amounts to some DM 9 million over the next five years. Working together in the IZBI are the Faculty of Medicine (which provides the centre's spokesperson), the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Faculty of Biology, Pharmacy and Psychology, and the Leipzig Max Planck Institutes of Evolutionary Anthropology, Mathematics in the Sciences and Cognitive Neuroscience. The Faculty of Medicine hopes for decisive improvements in clinical research to arise from co-operation between research groups of the IZKF and other Faculty research groups (especially at the University Hospital) with the KKSL (Leipzig Co-ordination Centre for Clinical Studies), which was founded in 1999 at the Faculty and is funded by the BMBF, as well as with the Centre for Bioinformatics. | |||||||||
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Particularly Regarding Performance-related FundingBMBF application |
Following the change to the University Hospital's legal
status and the resulting structural separation of the Faculty of Medicine
and the Hospital in 1999, the year 2000 was characterised by efforts to
separate state funding for teaching and research from medical expenditure.
This process ran parallel to applications submitted by the Faculty of
Medicine under the BMBF project "Improving clinical research in the
medical faculties in eastern Germany, including Berlin (Charité)".
Exact analyses and prognoses for the division of state funding for teaching
and research – particularly regarding performance-related funding
– was required to meet the specified criteria. Following initial
assessment in June 2000 and the revision of several application points,
the application process lasted until November 2000. The Faculty's declared
aim is a continual increase in the proportion of performance-related granted
funding – which in 2000 amounted to 22.4% and is set to reach 30%
by 2006. Factors which are instrumental to performance-related grant awards
include:
The support programmes of the Faculty of Medicine outlined here (the formel.1 and position rotation programmes) are to be supplemented financially by the BMBF application mentioned above over a period of three years. Based on the positive referee assessment of this part of the BMBF grant application, hopes are high that the funding of these programs will be approved. |
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Initiative for Profile Research |
The preparation of the BMBF grant application spawned a
broad initiative for profile research at the Faculty, involving in particular
the Deans' Committee, the research commission of the Faculty of Medicine,
and successful scientists. There are four main fields of research that
have long been successfully established in the Faculty of Medicine and
financed by numerous external grants. They are the IZKF's current research
topics endocrinology/vascular biology, immunology/rheumatology, the neurosciences,
and oncology, which includes investigating tumorogenesis arising from
chronic inflammation, tumour progression and therapy, and haematological
questions. Within these main research topics, cell biology plays a major
role in the research profile of the Faculty of Medicine. The BMBF application
includes a request for supplementary funding under the overall research
theme "Defective control of cellular signal networks in chronic diseases
(applied cell biology)" (which is also regarded as a topic of a DFG
Collaborative Research Centre initiative) for two new tenured positions
and the earlier appointment of three pre-clinical C4 professors, as well
as funds for personnel, materials and investment to strengthen all four
main areas of research.
In addition to research focusing on cell biology, scientists from the Faculty of Medicine were also successful in projects involving public health and psychosocial medicine. This is taken into account in the above-mentioned BMBF application by the formulation of a second major topic "The development and evaluation of psychosocial forms of care to meet the challenges of social, medical and technical change". The endowed professorship in "Economics of health" and a new research group "Psychosocial oncology" included in the grant application should strengthen this research area, hence bringing the goal of applying for a DFG Collaborative Research Centre nearer. |
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Biotechnology Offensive in the Free State of Saxony |
At this point, the Biotechnology Offensive in the Free State of Saxony, which includes the expansion of biotechnology in Leipzig and Dresden, should also be mentioned. The University of Leipzig, particularly the fields of medicine, veterinary medicine, biosciences, pharmacy, chemistry and physics, is to be closely involved in the topic "Molecule design and cell function: basics – technology – clinic", and optimum ways of co-operation are to be sought between the research groups yet to be established and existing research projects. This involves the construction of the Biotechnological–Biomedical Centre in Leipzig, the establishment of six endowed professorships at the University of Leipzig, including two at the Faculty of Medicine ("Molecular cell therapy" and "Cell and tissue culture technology/stem cell biology"), as well as additional support announced in the area of biotechnology (e.g. joint projects with non-university research establishments in Saxony). These will contribute to accelerating not only the basic research and interdisciplinary collaborative work of research groups in the domain of biotechnology but also – with the inclusion of biotechnology companies in Saxony – aspects ranging from applied research to new therapies, products and biotechnological applications. | |||||||||
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Environmental Medicine and Environmental Epidemiology |
The successful collaborative work between the Faculty of Medicine and the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle at the Centre for Environmental Medicine and Environmental Epidemiology was presented in the last research reports. To reinforce co-operation, the Faculty of Medicine plans to transform the Institute of Hygiene into an Institute of Environmental Medicine. In addition, an Independent Department of Hospital Hygiene will be established at the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Infection Epidemiology. | |||||||||
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Support for Junior Scientists |
The Faculty of Medicine's support for junior scientists
deserves particular attention. This arose through the posting of junior
projects in the context of in-house financed projects and will also be
a focus of the Faculty's new formel.1 and position rotation programmes
(see above). Moreover, the formel.1 programme is also seen as an opportunity
for medical students to interrupt their studies to carry out experimental
work for their doctorate. This will enable funding for research carried
out by particularly motivated medical students who have not received financial
support from the graduate programme run by the Free State of Saxony. Similarly,
their inclusion in the Postgraduate Research Unit "Intercell",
where they can carry out research together with young life scientists,
has proved to be a success. An application for a second Postgraduate Research
Unit was submitted in September 2000.
The Faculty of Medicine is actively engaged in establishing an MD/PhD programme with sister faculties at the University. Under this programme, exceptional medical graduates are to be given an opportunity to extend their life science education together with experimental research work. |
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Zusammenstellung: Forschungskontaktstelle, 12.11.2001 | |||||||||
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