Freie Universität Berlin

The Berlin University Alliance's Grand Challenge Initiative on Global Health combines research and practice aiming to improve the health of all people worldwide. The goal is to eliminate the existing inequalities in society so that all people can lead healthy lives.

Researchers from various fields are working together in transdisciplinary groups including the fields of medicine, natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

Global Health as a focus of research within the Berlin University Alliance builds on the strengths of Freie Universität in the natural and life sciences as well as the social sciences.

Research Projects in Various BUA Funding Programs

Research on global health at all four BUA partners has been funded through Exploration Projects. In addition, research projects are being funded within the three strategic partnership agreements of the Berlin University Alliance – the University of Oxford, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Melbourne – in order to strengthen international collaboration.

Research on the Coronavirus Pandemic

As a reaction to the rapid worldwide spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) disease in the spring of 2020, the Berlin University Alliance initiated and supported research on the Sars-Cov-2 virus as well aas the spread of the pandemic and its social impact. Very few other research locations have such a diverse body of expertise in one location, which made it possible, for example, to investigate the virus at the molecular level as well as its spread in the population. One important research focus was on the psychological impact of the pandemic for families or individuals. Through a project in collaboration with scientists in Ghana, the Berlin researchers are gaining a wider perspective on the global applicability of pandemic models.

Exploration Projects

Until the end of 2025, four Exploration Projects with varying emphases are being funded. Researchers from Freie Universität Berlin are involved in three of them. The Exploration Projects are both interdisciplinary and cross-institutional.

• Dr. Joachim Seybold, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Dr. Angel Phuti, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Dr. Sara Nasser, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Tobias Kurth, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Dr. Stefanie Theuring, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Dr. Kerstin Palm, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Zerrin Salikutluk, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal, Freie Universität Berlin 

In the implementation of the right to health, migrant populations in Germany face numerous barriers and exclusion mechanisms of a social, cultural, and structural nature. The project examines health needs of different migrant groups, gender-related differences, and the dynamics of intersectional inequalities in Germany. Perspectives from potential countries of origin are included to develop potential solutions.

For more information, see the project website.

• Prof. Dr. Sabine Ammon, Technische Universität Berlin
• PD Dr. Rasmus Leistner, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Dirk Oberschmidt, Technische Universität Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Annette Moter, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Charlotte Kloft, Freie Universität Berlin
• PD Dr. Ulrich Kertzscher, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Jens Rolff, Freie Universität Berlin

Development of resistance to antimicrobial agents is one of the major challenges in the fight against infectious diseases. GlobalResist is developing a wide-ranging approach to predicting antibiotic resistance that intricately links different disciplines. The aim is to enable the assessment of risks of patients developing resistance before use in the future, so that resistance issues can ideally be avoided, and antibiotics can be used more sustainably.

• Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisel, Freie Universität Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Dorothee Brantz, Technische Universität Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Ignacio Farías, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Sandra Jasper, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• PD Dr. Sandra Junglen, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Jörg Niewöhner, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Jörg Stollmann, Technische Universität Berlin
• Dr. Tanja Straka, Technische Universität Berlin
• Charrlotte Adelina, Freie Universität Berlin

Exploring urban human-animal-environment relationships and how they affect human health in urban spaces forms the basis of this project. The project thus investigates the multiple links between health, biodiversity, and environmental pollution.

Pandemic interventions to flatten the curve. Needs, effectiveness and impact in the global South - the example of Ghana

• Prof. Dr. Dirk Brockmann, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Robert-Koch-Institut
• Prof. Dr. Vitaly Belik, Freie Universität Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Leif-Erik Sander, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Dr. Philip El-Duah, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Reinhard Busse, Technische Universität Berlin

• Dr. Johanna Hanefeld, Robert-Koch-Institut

This project focuses on the application of models designed in industrialized nations to deal with pandemics in countries of the Global South. Due to the sometimes considerable structural and contextual differences in different regions of the world, it is only possible to transfer these models to a limited extent. In order to be able to include local conditions in their studies, the Berlin scientists are conducting research in close cooperation with the German-West African Center (G-WAC) for Pandemic Preparedness at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

The call for OX|BER Cooperation Groups Global Health within the OX|BER Research Partnership aimed to address issues related to the subject of global health. The call was aimed at collaborative groups working in the areas of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), Pandemic Lessons and Future Pandemic Preparedness, and Digital Health and AI to develop new and innovative approaches.

Context-Driven Infection Control Interventions

Principal Investigators

• Ass. Prof. MD PhD Christiane Dolecek, University of Oxford
• Dr. med. Friederike Maechler, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Dr. Tochi Okwor, CDC Nigeria

Co-Applicants

• Prof. Joachim Trebbe, Freie Universität Berlin
• Prof. Dr. Ben Cooper, University of Oxford
• Dr. Tim Eckmanns, Robert Koch-Institut Berlin

For additional projects within this partnership, see https://www.berlin-university-alliance.de/en/commitments/international/oxford/programme/cooperation-groups/global-health/index.html .

For information about the partnership in general, see https://www.berlin-university-alliance.de/en/commitments/international/oxford/index.html.

Corona Virus Pre-Exploration Project

This extensive alliance project laid the foundation for diverse and comprehensive research on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Berlin. The participating researchers investigated, among other things, potential active substances, the development of vaccine approaches, and possible health policy consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pre-exploration project was funded with approximately 1.8 million euros by the Berlin University Alliance as part of its Grand Challenge Initiative on Global Health.

The following scientists from Freie Universität Berlin were involved in this project::

• Dr. Sumati Bhatia
• Dr. Stephan Block
• Prof. Dr. Rainer Haag
• Dr. Daniel Lauster
• Prof. Dr. Klaus Osterrieder

Funding period: July 2020 through December 2021

For more information and list of publications, see the project website.

Special Call: Pandemic Research

Collecting Data on Social Cohesion and Global Health during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Up to now there was little pandemic research outside of medicine. A short window of time in the spring of 2020 offered an opportunity to obtain data on the individual, social, cultural, economic, political, legal, etc. consequences of a pandemic or the contact and curfew, closures, and transformations that followed. These data can help to react more quickly and effectively, and possibly also with more social acceptance, in the event of future epidemics.

• List of the Funded Projects.
• Article about the projects funded by Freie Universität Berlin in the online magazin campus.leben (in German)