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Deadlines and contact persons

To apply, please submit the complete set of documents described below to HBRS by e-mail as a single PDF file.

• Contact for students of human medicine: Dr. Susanne Kruse, OE 9117, Building J4, Level 1, hbrs@mh-hannover.de
• Contact for computer science students: Dean's Office for Academic Career Development, OE 9145, digistrucmed@mh-hannover.de

Application deadlines:

• For medical students: March 1
• For computer science students: May 1

As a precaution, please keep the following dates free during the selection and matching process:

• Selection interviews for medical students (in person): March 18, 2026
• Project exchange for medical students: Date to be announced

If there are still places available in projects after the first admission procedure and matching of students, these will be allocated in a second admission procedure. Applications received after the application deadline will be considered in the second admission procedure until all places have been filled.

If you have any questions, please contact:

• Program Speakers: Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Marschollek; Prof. Dr. Dr. Anette Melk
• Scientific Program Coordinator (interim): Dr. Thorsten Saenger, e-mail: digistrucmed@mh-hannover.de
• HBRS Coordination and Application: Dr. Susanne Kruse, e-mail: hbrs@mh-hannover.de

Admission requirements, application documents, selection process

1. Admission requirements

All students are expected to be willing to work full-time on their final project.

Medical doctoral candidates

Applicants must be enrolled in the human medicine program at MHH. Applications for the program can be submitted after successfully completing the first part of the medical degree (Physikum). This is usually after the 6th semester. Students must have successfully completed the biometrics subfield.

Computer science students

Applicants must be enrolled in a master's program in computer science, bioinformatics, medical informatics, or a comparable field of study at Hannover Medical School, Leibniz University Hannover, TU Braunschweig, or Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Admission of master's students from other universities in Germany is possible after consultation with the program coordinators.

You can apply for the program if you can guarantee that you will have earned at least 60 credit points (ETCS/CP) in your master's program after the third semester. You must be approved to write your master's thesis before the project begins.

Please note the regulations for secondary employment:

For doctoral students: Secondary employment during the scholarship period is not desirable.

For master's students: Secondary employment during the program participation period is not recommended and is only possible to a limited extent (max. 10 hours per week) with the approval of the program management. It may only be paid from one MHH cost center. Other secondary employment at MHH may have to be given up. Please send a request to digistrucmed@mh-hannover.de for review and approval (required information: employer, name or brief description of the activity, weekly working hours and times, confirmation of approval from your supervisor).

2. Application documents (Please use the application template linked below!)

a. Cover letter with a description of your motivation (max. 1 page, Calibri 11, line spacing 1.15).

Please address the following questions:

• What is your personal connection to and interest in digital transformation in medicine, and what specifically interests you about that?
• What is your intrinsic motivation for your dissertation or thesis, or what is your motivation for writing a doctoral or master's thesis on a DigiStrucMed project? 
• What are your medium- and long-term goals in terms of professional training and academic career path?

b. Curriculum vitae (max. 5 pages, see application template)

c. Attachments

• High school diploma (simple copy)
• Medical students: Physikum or table with graded certificates in the model study program, table of graded certificates in the 1st clinical year, etc.
• Computer science students: Bachelor's degree certificate (simple copy), transcripts from current master's program (transcript of records with average grade)
• Optional: Letters of recommendation and/or employment references, other supporting documents

3. Selection process

Selection criteria:

• Motivation
• Academic performance
• Medium- and long-term career plans in digital medicine
• Medical students: scientific interest and connection to digitalization
• Computer science students: scientific interest and connection to medicine

Application and admission process

1. Matching medical students with projects

Based on these criteria, medical school applicants will be preselected by the program committee and invited to in-person selection interviews in mid-March. Feedback on admission to the program will be provided approximately one week later, based on the applications and selection interviews, after confirmation by the program committee.

At the same time, the project applications received are preselected (provisional admission). The preselected projects are presented at the first project exchange in the form of short presentations by the respective project leaders. Medical students and project leaders then have the opportunity to meet and get to know each other without obligation for a period of approximately 2-3 weeks.

After the introductory phase, the medical students send a priority list of the projects they are interested in (priority 1-3) to the program coordination, which then matches medical students and projects. The results of the matching will be announced by mid-May, if possible.

2. Matching master's students and projects with medical students

Based on the selection criteria, computer science applicants will be preselected by the program committee and invited to online selection interviews in mid-May.

Based on the selection criteria, applicants from the field of computer science will be preselected by the program committee and invited to online selection interviews in mid-May. Feedback on admission to the program will be provided approximately one week later, based on the applications and selection interviews, after confirmation by the program committee.

At the same time, the projects that have already been matched with a medical student will be presented online at the second project exchange at the end of May in the form of short presentations by the respective project leaders. Afterwards, computer science students and project leaders will have the opportunity to meet (online) for approximately two weeks to get to know each other without obligation.

After the introductory phase, the computer science students send a priority list of the projects they are interested in (priority 1-3) to the program coordination, which then matches medical students and projects. The results of the matching will be announced by mid-June, if possible.

3. Project start

The welcome event will take place in person in mid-August. The project will start on August 1 (medical doctoral candidates) or between August 1 of the current year and February 1 of the following year (computer science students). The start date for master's students will be defined after consultation with the project leaders and the program coordination. The onboarding process will take at least 6 weeks.

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