The draft proposal for "R-CUBE - Organ Regeneration, Repair and Replacement" has convinced the DFG and the German Council of Science and Humanities. MHH President Professor Manns: "Success consolidates leading position in international transplantation and regeneration research."

It worked! The German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Council of Science and Humanities today informed Hannover Medical School (MHH) that the MHH Cluster of Excellence initiative "R-CUBE - Organ Regeneration, Repair and Replacement" has been invited to submit a full proposal from the draft proposals for new Clusters of Excellence submitted as part of the Excellence Strategy. R-CUBE is one of 41 draft proposals selected for new clusters of excellence. Nationwide, 143 draft proposals were submitted.

"The successful performance of R-CUBE in the most important German research competition consolidates MHH's position as a leading institution in international transplantation and regeneration research," says MHH President Prof Dr Michael Manns. "Despite increasingly fierce competition, we are holding our own in the top group of university medical research institutions - not only in Germany, but in Europe. I warmly congratulate the team led by Prof Dr Dr Thomas Thum." "Funding offers an exciting opportunity for us to further advance our visions and make groundbreaking progress in the field of organ repair and replacement," adds Professor Thum.

R-CUBE - organ regeneration, repair and replacement

The MHH is one of the world's leading centres for patients with organ diseases. The transplantation spectrum ranges from abdominal and thoracic organs to stem cells. Current therapies are symptomatic, and the lack of donor organs places an additional burden on patients and their families. R-CUBE is a translational research consortium that aims to strengthen clinical practice and research in advanced organ failure and thus improve patient care. R-CUBE will develop multimodal diagnostic tools for a personalised form of treatment that will support organ regeneration and repair and offer novel strategies for organ replacement.

Clusters of excellence are funded for seven years

With the Excellence Strategy, the federal and state governments aim to sustainably strengthen and further develop Germany as a centre of science. Internationally competitive research alliances are established as part of the Clusters of Excellence funding programme. At the MHH and its partner institutions, the RESIST Cluster of Excellence for infection research and the Hearing4All Cluster of Excellence on hearing at the University of Oldenburg, in which the MHH is significantly involved and which is already being funded for the second time, as well as the REBIRTH Cluster of Excellence, which has now expired.

Together with Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH), MHH had submitted two further cluster initiatives in this round - for "INFINITAS - Individualised Concepts for Lifelong Implant-Patient: Inside Synergy", an interdisciplinary research project that aims to improve the function of implants, particularly with a view to increasing functional times, and for "SciKnow - Knowledge Accelerator for Science", which aims to develop a platform technology so that scientific discoveries can be facilitated and accelerated in order to drive scientific progress.

The 41 projects that have now been selected will join the Clusters of Excellence, which have been running since 2019, in the race for funding of up to 10 million euros per year each. The new seven-year funding period begins on 1 January 2026 and the Clusters of Excellence that will be funded will not be determined until May 2025.

Text: Inka Burow