International Programmes 2024/2025

Hannover Biomedical Research School Hannover Biomedical Research School

Hannover Medical School • Hannover

Description/content

In 2003, the MHH founded Hannover Biomedical Research School (HBRS) as an “umbrella organisation” for existing and future structured postgraduate programmes. HBRS currently comprises six international PhD programmes – Molecular Medicine (since 2000), Infection Biology and DEWIN (since 2003/2010, Cluster of Excellence RESIST), Regenerative Sciences (from the Excellence Cluster “REBIRTH” in 2007), Auditory Sciences (from the Excellence Cluster "Hearing4all" in 2013), Epidemiology (since 2013) and Biomedical Data Science (BIOMEDAS since 2020). 

In addition, we offer three Master's programmes (Biochemistry, Biomedicine, and Biomedical Data Science). MHH is part of the IDOH (Infectious Diseases and One Health) Master's programme. A structured doctoral programme for medical students (StrucMed) was also successfully established in 2005, while a second "Clinical StrucMed" was started in 2015 and a third "Digital StrucMed" in 2021.

HBRS has become a highly attractive graduate school for (MD/)PhD training with a first-rate international reputation. It coordinates teaching and ensures excellent training in high-quality research laboratories, and it actively encourages integration and interdisciplinary exchange between students and young researchers from medicine, life science, and – since 2007 – also those with an engineering background. HBRS fosters educational and scientific interaction between university and non-university institutions in Hannover region. HBRS provides a framework for international guest lectures, summer schools, and for the training of talented students for a future career in science. In providing optimal conditions for female PhD students, HBRS aims to motivate and convince female academics to pursue a career in science. With the introduction of a “dual career” concept, involving the rotation of positions and tandem research groups, MHH supports a new model for clinical research scientists.

Our offer: We provide fully-funded studentships or employee positions for the three-year PhD programmes. In all programmes, the focus is placed on individual research projects, complemented by programme-specific seminars as well as an individualised curriculum comprising lab and soft-skill courses, congresses, symposia, and summer schools. Communication and the teaching language is in English. Upon graduation, students are awarded a PhD. Alternatively, life scientists and natural scientists may choose a Dr rer nat.

Application: The programmes are aimed at medical students and veterinary students as well as post-graduates in life science fields after finishing their MD studies, Master of Science, or Diploma (particularly in biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and biotechnology). The programme in Regenerative Sciences also welcomes engineers, for example, in the field of material sciences. The three main PhD programmes, Molecular Medicine, Infection Biology/DEWIN, and Regenerative Sciences, start annually in October. The deadline for applications is 1 March.

Faculties

Hannover Medical School is the only free-standing medical university in Germany. It offers a wide selection of international MD/PhD programmes within Hannover Biomedical Research School (HBRS) in cooperation with the following institutes:

Leibniz University of Hannover
University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover Foundation
Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine Hannover
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) Braunschweig
TwinCore Institute Hannover
University of Oldenburg
Technical University of Braunschweig

Course language

The course language is English.

Financial support
Yes
Structured research and supervision
Yes
Research training / discussion
Yes
Career advisory service

We offer a variety of career advice services such as consultation hours, a lecture series called "career perspectives", a great number of workshops, soft skill courses, orientation weeks, excursions to industry locations, and career days. Additionally, our more than 800 alumni are very happy to support you.

Support for international students and doctoral candidates
  • Welcome event
  • Buddy programme
  • Accompanying programme
  • Specialist counselling
  • Visa matters
  • Pick-up service
General services and support for international students and doctoral candidates

We provide you with support and services through the application/selection process and during the actual time of the PhD. We are happy to offer final exam support. 

List of doctoral programmes and other offers

MD/PhD programme in Molecular Medicine
PhD programme in Infection Biology / Dynamics of Host Pathogen Interactions
PhD programme in Regenerative Sciences
PhD programme in Auditory Sciences
PhD programme in Epidemiology
PhD programme in Biomedical Data Science

Hannover Medical School

Content Bild
© MHH

Hannover Medical School (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, MHH), founded in 1965, belongs to Germany’s top five university medical centres. With its interdisciplinary and interactive mission, MHH entertains strong collaborative links to important academic and industrial research organisations in regional, national, and international networks, creating a fine balance of basic, translational, and clinical research. Our physicians and scientists cooperate to study human diseases and develop innovative strategies for diagnosis, prevention, and therapy, supported by strong intramural programmes for career development. MHH’s compact and well-equipped campus provides broad expertise in cutting-edge medicine and life sciences, with particular know-how in our three main research areas: immunity & infection, transplantation & regeneration, and biomedical technology & implants. These research priorities reflect our major clinical strengths, producing numerous innovations in the search for novel treatment options based on chemical compounds, biomaterials, cell and gene therapy, tissue engineering, and implants, including hybrid approaches. The competitiveness of our profile is continuously shaped by important centre grants of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Federal Ministry for Research (BMBF), and the State of Lower Saxony. Our clinical research arena includes the Clinical Research Centre (CRC Hannover), a state-of-the-art trial centre dedicated to phase I/II (including first-in-man) studies. For investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials, MHH offers full institutional support in biometrics, pharmacovigilance, and Good Clinical Practice (GCP). In our basic research infrastructure, we operate several core units that ensure top performance in methodologies such as structural analysis, electron and fluorescence microscopy, non-invasive imaging (including nuclear medicine), immunomonitoring, deep sequencing and further omics disciplines, biobanking, cytometry and cell sorting, and development of Good Manufacturing Procedures for novel medicinal products. The core units contribute to MHH’s proactive measures for scientific quality assurance, complemented by basic and advanced training programmes in good scientific practice, ethics, and regulation, to the benefit of our patients. This institutional aim is reflected in our mission statement: “Every day for life”.

270 Number of doctoral students in HBRS
60% International students

University location

Hanover or Hannover, on the River Leine, is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), and was once, by personal union, the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later described as the Elector of Hanover). At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the electorate was enlarged to become a kingdom with Hanover as its capital. From 1868 to 1946, Hanover was the capital of the Prussian Province of Hanover and, afterwards, of the Hanover administrative region until that was abolished in 2005. Since 2001, it has been part of the Hanover district (Region Hannover), which is a municipal body made up of the former district (Landkreis Hannover) and the city of Hanover. (Note: Although both "Region" and "Landkreis" are translated as district, they are not the same.)

With a population of 518,000, Hanover is a major centre of Northern Germany and the country's thirteenth largest city. Hanover hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair and the CeBIT. Every year, Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the world's largest marksmen's festival, and the Hannover Oktoberfest, the second largest festival of its kind in Germany. In 2000, Hanover hosted the World's Fair Expo 2000. The Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover is of national importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport, and its large zoo. The city is also a major crossing point of railway lines and highways (Autobahnen), connecting European main lines in both the east-west (Berlin-Ruhr area) and north-south (Hamburg-Munich, etc.) directions.

Hanover offers visitors the buzz of a vibrant, major city as well as plenty of green spaces, both in the centre and the suburbs. Eilenriede Forest, for example (Hanover's "green lung"), covers an area of 642 hectares, making it almost twice the size of New York's Central Park. This urban woodland area is just one of the many places where people can stroll, relax, jog, enjoy nature, or picnic. Hanover's "green ensemble" at the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen includes a number of period gardens and fountains.

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