Enormous progress in medicine during the last decades has led to a far-reaching improvement in quality of life and life expectancy of patients. Nevertheless, major challenges remain including the transfer of findings from basic research to the clinic. Further, the increase in complex chronic diseases and comorbidities poses major challenges for all clinical disciplines. In the current organ- or disease-related research and sectoral health care, there is a lack of concepts to promote research and interdisciplinary training beyond one's own discipline. Due to demographic change, an increase in complex chronic diseases is also expected, and the gap between traditional, disease-focused medical care and the actual needs of patients will continue to widen.

Against this background, the Medical Faculty of Mannheim has set up a Clinician Scientist Programme which focuses on the transfer of findings from basic research to the clinic especially in the field of complex chronic diseases.

The Clinician Scientist Programme "Interfaces and Interventions in Complex Chronic Conditions (ICON)" (spokesperson: Prof. Dr. M. Ebert) therefore aims to provide sustainable support for the academic careers of clinician scientists in the translational medicine of complex chronic diseases and thus also to improve the care of this constantly growing patient group.

Further information on the lines of the funding programme, application requirements and the application procedure itself can be found here.

After the establishment of an internal funding programme for clinician scientists at the Medical Faculty of Mannheim a few years ago, aiming to support young doctors in their training phase to become specialists (Assistenzarztzeit) and giving them protected time to develop their own scientific careers, the Mannheim Advanced Clinician Scientist (MACS) programme was introduced to ensure the sustainability of this support. The MACS programme is aimed specifically at doctors with specialist qualifications (Facharzt) and is intended to open up reliable and attractive career prospects for them in university medicine.

The core element of the programme is the granting of a protected research period of 50% of the working time over 2 years after the specialist qualification of the applicants. Dedicated aim for the MACS fellows is to build up own research groups as the basis for a management position in academic medicine.

In addition to their own active research, the Mannheim Advanced Clinician Scientists are associated with the existing research networks in Mannheim and Heidelberg and are accompanied by 2 mentors for the entire duration of the funding period. The MACS fellows also act as mentors for the next generation of clinician scientists (junior mentors). The active participation in existing clinician scientist programmes of the Medical Faculty Mannheim on the one hand, and the existing research networks in the metropolitan region on the other hand, should enable successful networking of the various clinician scientists in the different phases of their academic careers, both with each other and with other scientifically active working groups in the different phases of their academic careers.

Ultimately, the MACS programme supports basic, clinical and/or translational research as well as specialised university patient care.

Further information on the lines of the funding programme, application requirements and the application procedure itself can be found here.