Prof. Thomas Illig is one of the coordinators of the National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON) of the National Research Network of University Medicine (NUM) in Germany.

01.10.2020

The BMBF is funding the establishment of the National Pandemic Cohort Network(NAPKON) of the National Research Network of University Medicine (NUM) for current and future pandemic control in Germany with €30 million.

The aim of the project is to establish a harmonized, expandable and interoperable National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON) to support the fight against the current COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences as well as future pandemics of any origin. To this end, a uniform concept with infrastructure cores and cohort platforms for the representative collection of fine-grained data and biosamples is to be established in Germany in order to ensure integrative research and the rapid transfer of results into clinical application and to build up a timely and comprehensive understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.

The NAPKON coordination group, with Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Illig and other coordinators, has developed an overall cohort concept for this purpose, on the basis of which all necessary data will be merged via uniform data set definitions in the planned joint research data platform. Furthermore, a uniform basic biospecimen program was defined.

The following university hospitals are jointly organizing this coordination group: MHH (Illig), UK Frankfurt (Vehreschild), UKSH Kiel (Schreiber) and UK Würzburg (Heuschmann)

These university hospitals combine outstanding research and care expertise at their sites. They are ideally equipped to gain new insights and quickly implement them in healthcare.