NewsBIH Academy
Advanced Clinician Scientist Program receives funding
To ensure that people are not only treated when they are ill, but that diseases do not develop in the first place, medicine must systematically incorporate preventive measures. The BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin are launching their Advanced Clinician Scientist Program (ACSP) proHealth to support physicians who are particularly committed to scientific research in the field of prevention. The program will initially receive €1.4 million in funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) until 2028 and a total of just under €8 million (subject to an interim evaluation) until 2036. Physician-researchers (clinician scientists) are expected to be able to apply for the first round of the career advancement program as early as mid-February.
Prevention is better than intervention: With its “Rethinking Health” approach, Charité, together with BIH, is pursuing the goal of enabling as many people as possible to enjoy more healthy life years through disease prevention in its 2030 corporate strategy. A particular focus is not only on preventing the onset of disease, but also on positively influencing the course of an existing illness, preventing additional complications, and improving the quality of life of people with chronic diseases.
This is where the Advanced Clinician Scientist Program proHealth comes in, which Prof. Dr. Il-Kang Na, Prof. Dr. Igor Sauer, and Dr. Prof. Britta Siegmund, in collaboration with the BIA under the direction of Dr. Nathalie Huber and Dr. Iwan Meij, have successfully secured funding for the next 10 years from the BMFTR. Researching physicians play a key role in disease prevention: they know the needs of the population and can transfer their research findings into their care. The ACSP proHealth allows these physicians in the advanced stages of their careers to continue their research activities alongside their clinical work.
As a career advancement program, ACSP proHealth not only supports clinician scientists in their research, but also offers them high-quality mentoring, coaching, and leadership training. The aim is to prepare them for leadership positions and make the fellows professionally qualified, e.g., for a professorship.
ACSP proHealth is another milestone in the established BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program, which also includes the BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program, the Junior Clinician Scientist Program, and the Digital Clinician Scientist Program.
About the BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program (CSP)
Established in 2011, the BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program is a career development program that allows research-oriented physicians in further training to devote a contractually regulated portion of their time to research. As Germany's largest clinician scientist program, with currently around 150 fellows and nearly 400 alumni, it plays a pioneering role and was designated a “best practice model” by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2015. The CSP is a joint initiative of BIH, Charité, Stiftung Charité, the private Excellence Initiative Johanna Quandt, the Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT), the Berlin School of Integrative Oncology (BSIO), and the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence. Other current sponsors include the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Volkswagen Stiftung, the Berliner Sparkassenstiftung Medizin, and the Harnisch Foundation.