About the ECRC

Based on 15 years of successful interdisciplinary cooperation on the Campus Berlin Buch the ECRC was launched by the Charité and the MDC in 2007. The ECRC as an institutional infrastructure dedicated to supporting collaborative research projects and patient-oriented research is equally financed and jointly run by the Charité and the MDC. Our mission is to accelerate the translation of discoveries from fundamental research into new procedures for diagnoses, prevention, and therapies for the most common diseases that threaten our society.

 

Strategy

The ECRC creates multiple links between basic researchers and clinicians, thus fostering the bidirectional transfer of knowledge between the two “worlds”, which is considered a key factor for successful “translational” research.

The ECRC provides scientists from the Charité and MDC extensive opportunities for carrying out translational projects:

  • Clinicians or basic researchers can apply for independent project groups to conduct a translational project within the ECRC. Funding is provided for three years (extension possible). The funding decision is based on a competitive evaluation involving external experts.

  • Clinicians and researchers of the MDC can jointly submit proposals for clinical collaborative projects which can be funded through the ECRC after a competitive evaluation . The projects are conducted at the ECRC and/or the MDC.

  • Within the ECRC, the MDC and Charité jointly sponsor a training program for clinicians (KAP) in basic molecular biology, in which clinicians take a break from their duties and join one of the MDC’s laboratories. This promotes long-term collaborations between the home and host.

  • Clinicians direct out-patient clinics and carry out clinical studies within the ECRC.

  • Clinicians and scientists have access to the clinical research center (outpatient clinics, beds for clinical trials) and technology platforms, (e.g. ultrahigh field MR instruments, GMP facility, biobanking).