BIH Charité (Junior) Clinician Scientist Program
The BIH Charité (Junior) Clinician Scientist Program is a modern career path in university medicine that guarantees research-active physicians a competence-based residency training with a contractually regulated share of working time ("protected time") for clinical and translational research. It plays a pioneering role for structured clinician scientist programs and was designated as a "best practice model" by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2015.
The program started in 2011 with eight grantees as the "Friedrich C. Luft" Clinical Scientist Pilot Program through funding from the Volkswagen Foundation and Stiftung Charité. After the successful pilot phase, the program grew steadily - through support from the Medical Faculty of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Stiftung Charité, the Private Excellence Initiative Johanna Quandt, the Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT), the Berlin School of Integrative Oncology (BSIO), the Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure, and BIH. In 2015, the program was organizationally integrated into the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy (BIA) and has since been called the BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program.
Currently, it is not only by far the largest Clinician Scientist Program in Germany (about 150 active fellows and 150 alumni), but also sets nationwide standards - especially in terms of design and quality assurance measures, including, for example, the two-stage selection process, formalized target agreement meetings, structured reporting via the BIH application and reporting portal, and regular feedback meetings.
There are two programs that can succeed each other (two separate applications): the BIH Charité Junior Digital Clinician Scientist Program (JDCSP) and the Charité Digital Clinician Scientist Program (DCSP). The JDCSP is aimed at physicians in their first to third year of residency training. The DCSP supports physicians from their fourth year of residency training. At the end of the DCSP, residency training is completed and ideally successful postdoctoral training. Since the first call in 2019, three additional calls have already been made. Currently, 24 DCSP fellows and 8 JDCSP fellows are in the program.
Calls
For the BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program as well as for the BIH Charité Junior Clinician Scientist Program, calls for applications are usually published twice a year. Among other things, a project proposal outlining the planned research project is required for the application.
Information on the current 2025_II calls and the past 2025_I and 2024_II calls are available here:
Statement: Dr. med. Eva Schrezenmeier (former representative of the CSP fellows)
Video message by CSP Alumna Dr. med. Annette Künkele
Video message by CSP-Alumna Dr. med. Ta Thi-Minh Tam
Our program in a nutshell
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Our current BIH Charité CSP Flyer (2024)
Download, Pdf (937 KB)
Contact
Prof. Dr. med. Il-Kang Na
Director BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program
- E-mail:
- il-kang.na[at]bih-charite.de
- Address:
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Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Straße 2
10178 Berlin
Dr. Nathalie Huber
Head of BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy; Head of Clinician Scientist Office
- Phone:
- +49 (0) 30 450 543 017
- E-mail:
- nathalie.huber[at]bih-charite.de
Dr. Beatrice Sobek
Coordinator BIA - Clinician Scientist Program
- Phone:
- +49 (0) 30 450 543 307
- E-mail:
- beatrice.sobek[at]bih-charite.de