Science Management

Science Management at BNITM

As the science management team at BNITM, we act as a central interface between research, institute management, committees, and administrative units. Our goal is to optimally promote and coordinate cooperation between these areas in order to sustainably strengthen the excellent research conducted at the institute and capacity building in our partner countries.

Liaison Office

Since 2020, the Liaison Office has served as a central bridge between our institute's employees in Germany and our scientific partner institutions in the Global South. We promote national and international cooperation through professional contract management, close coordination with partner institutions, and ensuring legal compliance. In doing so, we set formal quality standards and work closely with the biosafety and export control officer. This allows us to create a reliable foundation on which joint research projects can be carried out safely and effectively.

Quality management

Our contribution to quality: As quality management officers, we ensure that our quality management system is not only adhered to, but also actively implemented and continuously improved. Our key tasks include implementing standard requirements, guidelines, and legal frameworks, as well as coordinating internal audits and supporting external audits. We are also responsible for creating, maintaining, and managing all quality-related documents and statistics. In addition, QM is responsible for the support and further development of the electronic document management and action management system.

We report to the institute's management, support risk management, and actively drive process optimization. We systematically record non-conformities and check all measures for their effectiveness—for sustainable quality and trust.
 

Research data management

Research data includes all data (e.g., measurement, survey, and observation data, texts, survey data, images, software, and simulations) that is generated during scientific work and processed in digital form. It includes raw data, aggregated data, metadata, and descriptions of data structures (Guideline on the Handling of Research Data in the Leibniz Association, 2018). The data is as diverse as the research topics and scientific fields of the institute. The rules of good scientific practice and the requirements of funding organizations call for the sustainable and systematic handling of research data.

Research data management at the BNITM therefore develops strategies for data management and supports researchers at the institute in handling research data and in the long-term and secure storage and processing of data with advice, training, and technical services.

We are also actively involved in networks, working groups, and initiatives for the further development of research data management in the academic environment.

Public relations and science communication

We engage in target group-specific science communication through a wide range of activities. These include press and public relations work, handling press inquiries, writing press releases for our website, maintaining our social media channels, and updating our information screen at reception. In addition, we organize public and specialist events, such as our quarterly lecture for laypeople, and contribute to our half-yearly and annual reports – and much more!

Graduate School

Our graduate school offers a structured doctoral program for doctoral candidates. As a non-university research institute, we are not authorized to award doctoral degrees, so we work closely with the MIN Graduate Center (MINGZ) at the University of Hamburg.

We are also part of the interdisciplinary Leibniz Graduate School “Infections” at the Leibniz Center Infection (LCI), together with the Leibniz Institute for Virology (LIV) and the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center (FZB). Together, we regularly organize summer schools and methodological seminars on current topics in infection biology.

Committee support

An important area of responsibility for science management is the support and coordination of external committees. These include, in particular, the Board of Trustees, the Scientific Advisory Board, and the connection to the Leibniz Association. We take care of the organizational and content-related preparation of meetings of the Board of Trustees and Advisory Board, communication with committee members, and the documentation and follow-up of decisions.

As part of our connection to the Leibniz Association, we maintain contact with Section C – Life Sciences – as well as with relevant research associations, networks, and working groups. Thematic focus areas include internationality, knowledge transfer, animal testing and alternative methods, and sustainability. Through active participation in these structures, we contribute the institute's expertise to overarching strategic developments and at the same time benefit from professional exchange within the community.

Strategy development

We support the institute's management in its strategic and operational work, taking on key coordination and communication tasks. We prepare decision-making processes in terms of content and organization and support their implementation in close consultation with the Executive Board. This includes, among other things, the preparation and coordination of concept papers, development plans, and guidelines.

Research information, reporting, and evaluation

We coordinate reporting to funding bodies, authorities, and science policy committees, as well as the institute's scientific evaluations and audits. This includes program budget reports, contributions to the Leibniz Association's Pakt data query, reports for the Board of Trustees and Scientific Advisory Board, and the organization of the Leibniz Association's evaluation, which takes place every seven years. Between evaluations, we support regular audits for quality assurance and strategic development. In close coordination with research, administration, and the Executive Board, we ensure timely and transparent reporting.

Transfer

Technology transfer at our institute supports the implementation of scientific findings in practical applications with social and economic added value. The aim is to further develop research results in cooperation with partners from industry, healthcare, and the public sector and to put them into practice.

The department's tasks include identifying and evaluating protectable results, managing intellectual property rights, providing support with patent applications and the exchange of material and information, and initiating and supporting collaborations, licensing, and spin-offs—such as Panadea Diagnostics GmbH. IP and contract management is carried out in close cooperation with a specialized agency, Tutech Innovation GmbH. We are also active in a network of Hamburg universities and non-university research institutions that strengthens technology transfer in the region.

Library

Our institute library is the oldest and largest specialist library for tropical medicine in Germany. We offer extensive collections in the fields of tropical medicine, parasitology, immunology, virology, and molecular biology, and are the national reference library for tropical medicine.

We are a reference library only, and use of the library is free of charge. External users are also welcome to use the library by appointment. We also participate in the nationwide interlibrary loan system for medical literature, and our holdings are listed in the Common Library Network (GBV).