[Research funding of university medicine by the BMBF, DFG, and EU]

Public research funding is of growing importance for university medicine as a finance resource particularly in view of decreasing institutional budgets provided by the Federal States, as a serious stimulus for change in university medicine, and as an intra- and interuniversity research quality indicator, which is also used in the process of (re-)distributing institutional budgets. These three factors are largely determining the research in university medicine. The large funding institutions BMBF, DFG, EU have different programs and, thus, specific influence on the development of university medicine. The health research program of the BMBF focuses on clinical and patient oriented research, and gives incentives for the development of research structures of university medicine. The funding mechanism of the DFG is primarily demand oriented (bottom-up) and is focused on basic research. Nevertheless, the coordinated funding measures of the DFG are increasingly influencing the development of university medicine. The actual 7th framework program of the EU has a demand-orientated basic research program (ERC) as well as a broad structured program which also funds clinical research. With the recently invented instrument of joint programming the EU intends to influence the funding priorities of the member states.