BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program

The BIH Charité Clinician Scientist Program offers research-enthusiastic physicians at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin a structured integration of clinical specialist training and scientific career development. As one of the oldest and largest programs of its kind in Germany, it enables participants to focus their clinical-translational research through two funding tracks. The Junior Clinician Scientist Program targets physicians in the first three years of their specialist training, allowing them to dedicate 20 percent of their working time to an independent research project. The regular Clinician Scientist Program, aimed at specialists from the fourth year of training onward, provides up to 50 percent "protected time" for experimental, clinical, or health services research. Both tracks include a complementary curriculum, individual mentoring arrangements, and the shared goal of successfully completing both specialist training and a scientific qualification (habilitation or equivalent achievements) by the end of the funding period (two and three years, respectively).

Funded candidates are medical doctors with a doctoral degree, an excellent publication record, and innovative project ideas. Application requirements include, among others, a completed doctorate ("magna cum laude" or "cum laude") and an employment contract at Charité. In a biannual selection process, an expert jury evaluates the quality, innovativeness, and suitability of project proposals as well as the mentoring concept. Funded projects receive resources for personnel costs within the framework of the "protected time," course and seminar fees for the accompanying curriculum, as well as mentoring and workshop measures. In this way, the program strengthens the next generation of clinical scientists, promotes interdisciplinary exchange, and accelerates the transfer of new findings into patient care.