Science
Advancements in basic and clinically-oriented science are a core responsibility of the Medical Faculty at the Saarland University. In the last years, the Medical Faculty has successfully concentrated its scientific efforts towards these two areas.
In this, it was of particular importance for the Medical Faculty to establish collaborative research centres (CRCs) that are funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) and are highly interdisciplinary. As of today, the Medical Faculty is proud to head or substantially contribute to several, important and highly successful CRCs:
- SFB 894 - "Ca2+Signals: Molecular Mechanisms und Integrative Functions" (with the spokesperson at the Medical Faculty)
- SFB 1027 – "Physical modelling of non-equilibrium processes in biological systems" (with the deputy spokesperson at the Medical Faculty)
- SFB TRR 152 – "Control of the Body Homeostasis by TRP Channel Modules "(with the deputy spokesperson at the Medical Faculty)
Furthermore, the Medical Faculty substantially contributes to the DFG-funded international graduate school „Complex membrane proteins in cellular development and disease". This was established jointly with the University of Kaiserslautern and the University of Alberta/Canada. In addition, members of the Medical Faculty are coordinators of various successful EU- or BMBF-funded joint research projects, both in basic as well as clinically oriented science.
For additional intramural support of scientific projects, the Medical Faculty has – in 2003 - established an application-based science program “Homburger Forschungsförderung” or HOMFOR. This program was founded to either push forward new and innovative research projects or to specifically support the science of young academics. While the former projects receive funding for 12 months, young scientists heading the latter projects can eventually obtain 4 years funding (3 years PhD student and consumables for 4 years). They shall gain expertise in planning and conducting their own scientific projects and learn how to guide young scientist in their very early career (PhD thesis) themselves. Both programs aim to improve the chances for the applicants to successfully obtain highly competitive third party funding.
In addition, for many years the Medical Faculty also distributes ex-post performance-oriented funds for each institution. In here, received funds relate to two key parameters of scientific performance, namely publications and third party support only.
By means of these approaches the Medical Faculty attempts to further foster the concentration of the faculty´s science onto successful core areas of its research and thus sharpen its scientific portfolio and profile.
In 2005, the Medical Faculty founded the competence centre “Molecular Medicine” (COMM). COMM was designed to support the scientific community in the Saarland, increase the public awareness of the high-level science at the Medical Faculty and to allow fostered visibility of the scientific achievements in Germany.
