36 million euros for future technologies: Helmholtz launches three new research initiatives

Influenza is one of the most serious infectious diseases worldwide, causing up to 500,000 deaths each year. What if, in the future, a viral infection could be detected early, easily, and reliably using a taste sensor embedded in chewing gum – quickly, conveniently, and without technical barriers? This approach exemplifies the innovative strength of the three new Helmholtz research initiatives.

Established over a three-year period, the initiatives address cross-cutting topics in the Helmholtz research areas of Health, Information, Matter, Energy, and Earth and Environment. The new initiatives strengthen collaboration within the Helmholtz Association and cooperation with companies, start-ups, and university partners in order to address key challenges for the economy and society. “The future is happening now - and it is emerging where science, politics, and industry work together,” says Helmholtz President Martin Keller. “With our research initiatives, we are driving innovation to make our country a leading location for new technologies and to tangibly improve people’s lives.”

The aim of the Helmholtz Biomedical Engineering Initiative is to position Germany as a leading location for biomedical technologies, applications, and start-ups, and to accelerate the transfer of new research results into clinical practice and everyday life. To this end, the initiative connects Helmholtz Centers in the field of health research with other Helmholtz Centers and with partners from science, clinical practice, and industry. In this way, it contributes to a high-performance German bioengineering ecosystem along the entire innovation and value chain, from discovery in the laboratory to prototypes and clinical trials, through to approval and application. The initiative’s projects translate these goals into concrete applications and develop pioneering solutions that enable earlier diagnoses, targeted prevention, and more effective, individually tailored therapies. Examples include needle-free insulin sensors, microrobots for precise cancer therapy, and AI-assisted influenza self-tests.

With the Quantum Use Challenge, the Helmholtz Association is promoting the targeted transfer of quantum technologies into previously untapped fields of application. The aim of the initiative is to harness the potential of quantum computing, simulation, and sensor technologies for specific societal and industrial challenges where conventional methods are increasingly reaching their limits. Close collaboration between developers and users plays a central role in anchoring quantum technologies firmly in research and practice. To this end, the initiative brings together expertise from five Helmholtz research areas to develop more powerful batteries, visualize cancer cells and micrometastases at early stages, and create more realistic models of groundwater, energy, and environmental systems. This opens up new perspectives for health technologies, climate resilience, and water and energy research. The Quantum Use Challenge thus lays the foundation for future research in which quantum technologies are not only further developed, but also enable new ways of modeling, analyzing, and experimentally investigating complex systems across multiple disciplines.

Drought and heat stress, as well as flooding and heavy rainfall, are significantly altering the water cycle. In countries of the Global South, an unreliable water supply is already hampering social and economic development; in the future, industrialized countries will also have to prepare for increasingly variable availability. In view of these growing global crises and risks, the Helmholtz Water Safety and Security Initiative focuses on the central challenge of ensuring sustainable and safe water management. The initiative builds on a research profile that is unique in Germany: the 13 participating Helmholtz Centers cover the entire water cycle with their areas of expertise – from the global and terrestrial system to the molecular level. In close cooperation with citizens and representatives from nature conservation, agriculture, industry, water supply, and urban development, they are developing concepts for integrated water management, new approaches for climate-resilient cities, and solutions for addressing water extremes that can be used worldwide in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary real-world laboratories.

Further information on the Helmholtz initiatives