Invitation To Media OutletsHealth + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim: Inaugural Event with State Premier

Baden-Württemberg’s State Premier Winfried Kretschmann will attend a kick-off event held by the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim. This will launch the institutional establishment of the research alliance that seven leading research facilities have founded in order to build the Rhine-Neckar region into an internationally leading biomedical-technological cluster focusing on life sciences, the health economy and medical technology. A memorandum of understanding having been signed, the next step is now the upcoming founding of a nonprofit limited company. The kick-off event, taking place at Heidelberg University on 22 September 2022, will feature a presentation of the current status and further planning to develop the alliance, as well as the initial results of projects connected with its funding as an Innovation Campus.

The driving forces behind the development, which is rooted in two decades of cooperation, are Heidelberg University, a University of Excellence, with its two Medical Faculties, the German Cancer Research Center, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, the Central Institute of Mental Health and the two University Hospitals in Heidelberg und Mannheim. The seven partners form the core of the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim. They are united in the goal of expanding common priorities in health research, bolstering life science research and intensifying transfer into industry and society. The aim is thereby to create a new leading industry with great traction and high potential for sustainable value creation, together with strong partners from business and the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region.

The state of Baden-Württemberg is giving 10.7 million euros as a first step towards supporting the structural development of the research alliance. Since 2021, three pilot projects of the partners have already received funding worth 40 million euros in the context of the Innovation Campus funding line, e.g. to build joint high-tech platforms or advance the use of artificial intelligence in life sciences. Embedded in a network of start-ups and companies in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim seeks to further expand its excellent research, along with translation and transfer, by linking outstanding university and non-university research centres with the university’s medical faculties and the university hospitals. Its aim is to become an internationally top-level, globally competitive location for biomedical technology. To lay the foundations for this, the seven partners signed a memorandum of understanding in August 2021, also setting out the decision-making mechanisms and working structures of the alliance. This is now to be implemented institutionally through the founding of a joint limited company.

The inaugural event with the State Premier will be opened by Prof. Dr Bernhard Eitel, Rector of Ruperto Carola. After a speech by Winfried Kretschmann, the spokespersons of the research alliance – Prof. Dr Wolfgang Wick (Heidelberg University Hospital) and Prof. Dr Michael Boutros (German Cancer Research Center and Heidelberg University) – will describe the stage of development, prospects and potential of the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim. Three scientific conversations will follow, dealing with the three funded pilot projects of the Innovation Campus. The topics will be neurosciences and cancer, molecular engineering and bio-convergence – the connection between medicine, biosciences and data sciences – and knowledge-based spin-offs. Spin-offs are planned in order to advance the transfer of knowledge and technology into the highly dynamic economy of the Rhine-Neckar region and the translation of medical research into health care.

For newsrooms

The non-public kick-off event of the Health + Life Science Alliance Heidelberg Mannheim will take place at the Marsilius Kolleg of Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 130.1, on 22 September 2022, starting at 3.30 pm. Representatives of the media are warmly invited to attend and report. Registration is required by 20 September to presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de