The Helmholtz Association launched the “Helmholtz Biomedical Engineering Initiative” at the beginning of 2026. The aim is to accelerate technology development and transfer in biomedical fields, to position Germany as a leading location for biomedical technologies, applications and start-ups, and to bring innovations more quickly into the clinic and everyday life.

The initiative combines state-of-the-art infrastructure and interdisciplinary expertise of the Helmholtz Health Centres. It combines life, engineering, data sciences, and medicine to develop solutions for continuous health monitoring, prevention, early disease detection, and personalized diagnostics and therapies. Building on regional strengths and targeted promotion of industrial cooperation, national cooperation is intended to close gaps in training and research framework conditions and strengthen science-driven entrepreneurship.

The initiative is part of a 36-million-euro package for future technologies launched by the Helmholtz Association in 2026. Over a period of three years, three overarching research campaigns will be funded, including Biomedical Engineering, Water Safety and Security and the Quantum Use Challenge. The measures are in line with the High-Tech Agenda Germany and European efforts to promote start-ups and scale-ups.

To kick things off, ten cross-centre projects with start-up potential or existing industrial collaborations were selected and funded in a competitive process. These address key medical challenges, including miniaturized non-invasive sensor technologies, AI-supported diagnostic and imaging techniques, microrobots, encapsulated drug delivery systems, tailor-made peptides for cancer therapies, microfluidic platforms against multidrug-resistant drugs, and human organ-on-chip technologies. Five projects are coordinated by Helmholtz Munich, which also provides the central coordination unit.

Ten Helmholtz Centres are involved: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Forschungszentrum Jülich, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Helmholtz Munich, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Max Delbrück Center.

The initiative places great emphasis on community building, talent development and knowledge transfer. It is intended to involve new academic partners, involve industry and start-ups more strongly and help shape national and European political processes in order to anchor biomedical engineering in training and qualification in the long term.

The Helmholtz Biomedical Engineering Initiative uses the unique position of the Helmholtz Association to solve medical challenges, provide economic impetus and strengthen Germany’s technological sovereignty.

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Bioengineering

Editor: X-Press Journalistenbüro GbR

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