The Heidelberg Medical Faculty has been funding protected research time for clinician scientists as part of its Physician Scientist Program since 2014.

Due to the dynamic development of health research and the resulting increasing need for close collaboration between different scientific professions, the previous Physician Scientist Program was diversified and relaunched in 2022. The program now consists of three separate funding lines:

• Clinician Scientist Program for physicians working in research, psychologists working in clinical practice and dentists,
• Medical Scientist Program for natural scientists focusing on medical research and
• Medical Data Scientist Program for scientists from the fields of medical informatics, medical bioinformatics, digitalization in medicine or medical data sciences.

The final call for applications for the Physician Scientist Program in its previous form was June 2022. Physicians and researchers who were previously funded in the program may participate in the new Career Development Program’s events.