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Health research

Artificial intelligence, innovative health technologies (e.g. next-generation sequencing, gene editing and CRISPR/Cas) and medical technology are driving rapid advances in health research. This is leading to innovative treatments, diagnostics, prevention options and new active ingredients, medicines and medical products –personalised and tailored to the target group. We support technologies that set the course for medical progress in a learning, increasingly predictive and preventive healthcare system and in the care of tomorrow. In this way, we can combat major widespread diseases such as cancer, dementia and cardiovascular disease and also make faster progress on issues such as women’s health, antimicrobial resistance and post-infectious diseases such as Long COVID (post-COVID syndrome) and ME/CFS. Ethical, legal and social aspects are considered from the outset in order to ensure that research results and treatments are efficiently and effectively translated into practice. Medical progress must be accelerated along the entire value chain. The key to this is an excellent, well-equipped research ecosystem that brings together university and non-university institutions on an equal footing and consistently involves companies, ensuring that research findings reach the healthcare sector. University medicine is central to this. At the same time, European and international cooperation are also factored in. By aligning research with industry in medical and healthcare technologies, we tap into this market’s enormous growth potential and secure long-term value creation in Germany.  

Selected technology-driven projects

  • We support the targeted integration, use and development of medical datasets of unprecedented scope and detail, linking them to the European Health Data Space (EHDS). Sources include the Network of University Medicine (NUM), clinical studies, the Health Research Data Centre (FDZ), genomDE, medical registries and the NAKO health study. This supports the development of new diagnostic methods, active substances, medicines, vaccines and therapies, enabling more targeted and personalised prevention, detection, treatment and cure of diseases. The NUM’s third funding phase, with new projects and infrastructure such as the integration of the German Biobank Node (GBN), began on 1 July 2025. It serves as a central platform for German biobanks, offering an overview of access procedures and the potential uses of the stored biospecimens. The NUM’s long-term funding is to be consolidated by 2026, with connection to the EHDS planned for March 2029. 

  • We aim to realise the potential of data-driven health research through artificial intelligence, in-silico modelling and computer simulations of biomedical processes. Through data utilisation projects and use cases, we support the transfer to clinical applications and public health research, including prediction, more precise diagnosis and treatment, patient stratification, forecasting disease progression and carrying out virtual clinical trials. The first funding regulations for this will be published before the end of the year. 

  • We focus on medical technology and smart solutions such as digital applications, adaptive robotics and daily-use sensor technology to drive breakthroughs in medicine and care. These innovative technologies are being put into practice to help patients and those in need of care to live independently, while supporting medical professionals such as carers and doctors in their daily work. The next step is to publish two new funding measures in Q1/2026.