Bonn to get €60M cross-institution dementia research centre

The German Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan announced that Bonn University has won the competition to host the new German Centre for Research into Neuro-Degenerative Diseases (Deutsches Zentrum für die Erforschung Neurodegenerativer Erkrankungen).

The universities of Cologne and Jülich will also be involved in the centre, acting as satellites to the core unit in Bonn.

Bonn beat its rivals in Berlin, Munich, Tübingen, Göttingen and Heidelberg to host the translational research centre where 400 researchers will be involved in analysing the causes of, and investigating potential therapies for, neurodegenerative diseases. It will operate under the aegis of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

About 300 positions will be based in the main unit of the centre, on the Venusberg campus near the Bonn University Clinic, with about 80 additional ones being located at the satellite units. The University Clinic is providing a piece of land next to the Neurocentre and the Life and Brain Institute, for the Dementia Centre’s new home. The estimated seven-figure construction costs will be paid for by the Federal state of North-RhineWestphalia.

“This is a great day for the Bonn Research Region,” said the University of Bonn’s Assistant Rector for Research, Professor Max Baur. “The new research centre will place Bonn at the cutting edge of German dementia research. It will also make North-Rhine Westphalia’s status as a research location more visible internationally.”