The new innovation campus “Health and Life Science Alliance” for the topics of health and life sciences in the Rhine-Neckar region is picking up speed: With the funding approval for a further research focus on life science and interdisciplinary research platforms, it is now clear which research topics the state government’s priority project will focus on. The Ministry of Science is supporting the establishment of the research focus with international appeal for the years 2021 to 2024 with 40 million euros. Long-term funding is being coordinated.
Permanent funding is being discussed
“The health and life sciences are a central pillar of the state’s future”, said Science Minister Theresia Bauer in Stuttgart. She added that the Innovation Campus was not only very popular in the region, but throughout the state. “We have hit the mark with this measure. We are currently examining how we, as a state, can secure the Innovation Campus in the longer term beyond the project period so that it can grow stably and create sustainable added value for the region and the state.”
Three Innovation Campus Projects
Currently, three innovation campus projects are being established and funded by the state as symbols of cutting-edge research in strategically relevant areas in Baden-Württemberg. The innovation campuses are established where the targeted promotion of excellent research with the strengths of the respective region forms an innovation ecosystem in which answers to the great challenges of our time can be found. Here, universities, research institutions, business and civil society network and create added value for the entire country.
Life and health sciences
The Heidelberg Mannheim Health and Life Science Alliance Innovation Campus combines the potential and expertise of the University of Heidelberg, the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, the Central Institute for Mental Health and the University Hospitals of Heidelberg and Mannheim in the form of an innovation ecosystem.
In this way, the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts is pursuing an approach that it first adopted five years ago with Cyber Valley in the field of artificial intelligence. Now in its fifth year, the Cyber Valley Innovation Campus is already an internationally acclaimed and successful project. In addition to the Innovation Campus Health and Life Sciences, another Innovation Campus is being established for the future of mobility.
The research priorities now secured and funded at the Innovation Campus Health and Life Science Alliance will be:
- Life science projects and interdisciplinary research platforms: Molecular biological investigations open up new ways of understanding many diseases. Changes at the level of genes, proteins and metabolic products allow precise diagnosis and new possibilities for therapy. How these pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit together in a meaningful way is explored in this focus area. In addition, completely new forms of therapy are being developed, such as the use of artificially produced and customised immune cells. Early clinical studies are also to be promoted in order to bring the research results into application more quickly.
- Cardiovascular Diseases: In the cardiovascular focus, excellent young researchers will be given the opportunity to establish their own working group in cardiovascular research in the Rhine-Neckar region.
- Artificial intelligence: Here biomedical data, as obtained in research institutes and hospitals, is networked with outstanding AI research and in this way made usable for innovative applications. A strategy for the use of AI in health research will bring together the potential of the individual institutions and expand it in a targeted manner. At the same time, projects in which this strategy is used will be funded.