Driven by specific medical needs and with direct access to the medical infrastructure, the research projects of the EKFZ accelerate the digitalization of medicine.
ideal framework conditions for promising medical research
Interdisciplinary
Innovation Projects
IIP PROGRAM: EVALUATION COMPLETED. No new call will be opened.
As the first EKFZ funding period came to an end, the IIP Program underwent a detailed evaluation, which is now completed. Over the past five years, the program has supported numerous innovative projects that have contributed valuable impulses to the development of digital health solutions. However, the results of the evaluation show that the program will not be continued in its current form. The assessment revealed that the long-term impact of the funded projects is strongly influenced by structural and strategic factors beyond the program’s control. We therefore concluded that future funding should be directed toward more thematically focused initiatives to achieve greater impact and ensure a more efficient use of resources. We thank all participating teams and partners for their commitment and valuable contributions. Information on future funding formats will be published on our website.
About the IIP Program
The EKFZ for Digital Health supports medical-technological innovation. As one successful instrument we have established Interdisciplinary Innovation Projects (IIP). As an open instrument, each project was jointly coordinated by two PIs: an experienced clinician and a high-tech specialist. The clinician needed a scientific track record in the respective field at Dresden University Hospital/Faculty of Medicine, representing the medical need and needed clinical mentorship. The high-tech specialist of the TU Dresden, one of the Fraunhofer institutes IWS, IWU, FEP, IKTS, IPMS, of the HZDR/NCT/UCC Dresden and/or a Leibniz-Institute brought outstanding expertise and technologies into the IIP. In each funding round, we supported up to three new projects with excellent scientific quality, high originality, and demonstrable clinical relevance. A committee of internal and external experts reviewed all applications and made recommendations to the steering committee, who made the final decisions.