Living a long and healthy life – in Germany, chances are better than ever before. Improved living conditions and good medical care have almost doubled our life expectancy over the past one hundred years. Improving and maintaining the health and quality of life of people of all age groups and enabling their participation in society is a central pillar of our long-term research funding. Achieving these aims requires excellent research whose results benefit the people immediately and directly.

A diverse research field 

New, effective medicines and medical devices are crucial for the medical care of the future. However, other factors and processes also play an essential role:

• Modern technology and digitalization enable a previously unthinkable level of insight that benefits patients.
• Scientific trials and studies continuously work towards enhancing and specifying clinical practice guidelines for doctors.
• Researchers look for new methods of prevention in order to detect disease as early as possible or even prevent it entirely.
• Germany is a strong and internationally competitive centre of health research. It is important to maintain and build on this position.

The Health Research Framework Programme 

The Health Research Framework Programme sets out the Federal Government’s long-term strategic focus and impetus in this research field. In this way, the government makes sure that the healthcare system of the future is designed to match people’s needs and that new scientific findings are transferred swiftly into clinical practice. The dynamic nature of the programme is what makes it so unique: it learns over time. It is consistently evaluated and adapted to take account of current developments. The programme is built on fundamental pillars.

People take centre stage

Genes, life style, sex and gender are just some examples of how individual factors affect health and disease. It is important to give more consideration to these factors and understand their interaction in order to develop treatment options that are personalized to the individual.

Digital and personalized

It is now possible to make even better use of ever-larger sets of data. Researchers can use big data to identify complex, previously unknown relationships, enabling them to gain valuable insights for the development of personalized prevention, diagnostics and treatment options.

Participation and patient involvement

Health research is guided by the wishes and needs of the people. To this end, all those involved – patients, their families and medical and healthcare professionals – must be involved from an early stage. This ensures the transfer of research results into everyday health care.

Health research as a driver of innovation 

Academic institutions that conduct health research generate new findings and develop and test new active substances, prototypes and processes. The health industry uses these findings to develop marketable products and quality-assured services. 

Next to the pharmaceutical industry, the medical technology sector plays an important role in this research field. The sector’s products range from x‑ray and dialysis machines to pacemakers, prostheses and telemedicine. German medical technology companies are very successful thanks to their high level of innovativeness. The European Patent Office registers more patent applications in the field of medical technology than in any other field of technology. 

To support this trend, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has adopted a dedicated funding programme to support Germany’s medical technology industry, which is primarily comprised of small and medium-sized enterprises. Interactive digital health solutions that cannot be categorized as medical products also enhance health care and help patients. Likewise, the BMBF has launched another specialist funding programme to support this sector.

Health research with global benefits 

The health of people in developing countries is a major challenge. The BMBF provides support in this area and develops solutions to problems that are specific to these countries.

Global health: Germany is taking responsibility

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Disease knows no borders. This is particularly true for infectious diseases that can cause devastating epidemics or for antimicrobial resistance. Societies around the world are faced with challenges that can only be overcome through global, cross-sectoral cooperation – following the “One Health” approach.

“Good health and well‑being” is the third of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3). For us, it is important that German research contributes towards achieving this goal. As the world’s third-largest economy and largest EU member state, Germany has a global responsibility. That is why the BMBF provides funding for collaborative research projects at European and international level. Because good health must not be a question of rich or poor.

Editorial deadline for this text: 01.11.2024