DZL Sites

With the foundation of the German Centers of Health Research, the German federal government is pursuing the objective of gaining new insights and progress in the treatment and cure of future significant widespread diseases.

In 2011, in its framework program on health research, the government declared lung diseases to belong to this group of diseases. With a translational approach, knowledge from basic research should be translated into clinical use in a timely manner.

In the DZL, leading experts Germany-wide, among them more than 170 researchers and their working groups from 18 university and non-university institutions, are working together at five sites. Each of the sites, with its own expertise and infrastructure, is recognized as a specialist in the field of lung diseases. This special networking and cooperation facilitates a continuous exchange of scientists between the sites and thus a rapid exchange of research findings.

For this major project, the DZL has chosen the integrative research approach. This means that all disease areas (defined diseases or disease groups) are worked on and researched jointly by at least two of the DZL partners. The available platforms and core facilities provide the scientists with a solid basis for their research activities. In addition to the excellent infrastructure already existing, work continues on tailormade innovative technologies to complement the existing pool.

In order to strongly promote the attractiveness of Germany as a scientific location, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will support all six German Centers for Health Research until 2015 with a total of 700 million €, of which the DZL will receive 70 million €.