Helmholtz Institutes

Helmholtz Virtual Institutes are cross-locational, cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional. They mainly aim to unite the competencies and resources of participating universities and Helmholtz Centres. Virtual Institutes generally involve three to four institutions, but can include fewer or more, depending on the task at hand. Since the third call for proposals, the programme has also made it possible to integrate foreign partners.

Helmholtz Virtual Institutes have their own executive and management structure and develop special measures to qualify their young researchers. Over a three-year period, Virtual Institutes receive up to a maximum of 300,000 euros per year from the Initiative and Networking Fund. These institutes can be used, for example, to prepare the way for larger collaborative networks such as the Helmholtz Alliances.

The Application Process

Applications for the creation of a Helmholtz Virtual Institute can only be submitted in response to a call for proposals by Helmholtz Association Head Office and must include at least one Helmholtz Centre. Approvals are based on a competitive process with external review.

Approved Helmholtz Institutes

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Helmholtz Institute Freiberg
The Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF) pursues the objective of developing innovative technologies for the economy so that mineral and metalliferous raw materials can be made available and used more efficiently and recycled in an environmentally friendly manner.

To Helmholtz Institute Freiberg

Helmholtz Institute Jena
The proposed institute combines forces of the two Helmholtz centres DESY and GSI, leading institutions worldwide, with a very broad basis in laser and photonics research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU) to create a unique concentration of competence. The future Helmholtz centre FZD will be closely associated to most of the institute's research activities. The institute's mission is excellence in fundamental and applied research based on accelerated particles, ultrahigh-power lasers, and x-ray science.

To Helmholtz Institute Jena

Helmholtz Institute Mainz
The achievement of a precise quantitative understanding of strong interaction on all length scales and its role in the standard model of physics, is the shared challenge of the cooperating partner institutions in the Helmholtz-Institute Mainz: the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt and the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry, Nuclear Physics and Physics of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

To Helmholtz Institute Mainz

Helmholtz Institute Saarbrücken
The newly established Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) is based on the research in the fields of pharmaceutical sciences on campus of Saarland University and infection research at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. Activities and expertise of the groups in HIPS in combination with the activities and expertise of the HZI offer the opportunity of a complete coverage from drug discovery and development to clinical phase IIa studies.

To Helmholtz Institute Saarbrücken

Helmholtz Institute Ulm
The new Ulm Helmholtz Institute is founded and organized by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), member of the Helmholtz Association, in cooperation with Ulm University. Associated partners are the German Aerospace Center (DLR), also member of the Helmholtz Association, and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wuerttemberg (ZSW).

Zum Helmholtz-Institut Ulm