Institutions

TU Dresden is one of the leading and most dynamic universities in Germany. It is identified by the German government as a 'University of Excellence' since 2012. Health sciences, biomedicine, and information technology belong to its research priority areas. Currently, TUD ranks 5th among German universities in terms of EU contribution and project participations in Horizon 2020. Interdisciplinary cooperation among various fields is a strength of TU Dresden, whose researchers also benefit from collaborations with the region's numerous science institutions including Frauenhofer, Leibniz and Max Planck institutes. TU Dresden prides itself for its international flavor and has partnerships with more than 70 universities world-wide.

The Faculty of Medicine has specialized in three disease areas with neurological and mental disorders among them:  oncological diseases, metabolic diseases with an emphasis on diabetes, and neuro-psychiatric diseases. It is partner site of three German Centers for Health Research on neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and oncology funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). International exchange is a prerequisite for cutting-edge research. The Faculty of Medicine in Dresden lives this idea with employees from 73 nations as well as numerous collaborations with researchers and teams from around the world. Overall 2500 students for medicine, dentistry, public health and medical radiation science are registered.

The Faculty of Psychology at TU Dresden is recognized for excellent basic research as well as for studies of high clinical and societal relevance. It belongs to Germany’s top 5 psychology departments in terms of funding and publications, and is counted among the top 100 psychology departments worldwide (Times World University Ranking 2019). It offers a state-of-the-art research infrastructure for research in cognitive-affective neuroscience, clinical psychology and psychotherapy, and human performance in socio-technical systems, and entertains numerous interdisciplinary collaborations across faculties and with leading research institutions worldwide.

The University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden offers medical care at the highest level. As a hospital of maximum care, it covers the entire spectrum of modern medicine. The University Hospital Dresden unites 26 clinics and outpatient clinics, 4 institutes and 17 interdisciplinary centers that work closely with the clinical and theoretical institutes of the Faculty of Medicine. The University Hospital has 1.410 beds, more than 50.000 patients are treated in inpatient departments and more than 190,000 outpatient visits are performed at the University Hospital each year.

The transCampus© initiative builds a unique partnership between two of Europe’s leading academic institutions, King’s College London and TU Dresden. The transCampus© aims to coalesce the resources and individual strengths of both institutions to create a complementary academic and clinical platform stimulating, supporting and enabling collaborations and transnational projects. It acts as a wide academic stage in which students from both universities can move freely and benefit from the respective academic programs. Three transCampus© professors from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN; A. Young, K. Rubia, C. Pariante) hold dual appointments and are part-time employees at TUD.

​Founded in 1409, the University of Leipzig is the second oldest university in Germany, boasting many world-renowned and influential student and research alumni, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Among the strategic research fields of the University of Leipzig, Globalization and Sustainable Principles for Life and Health directly link to the focus of Mental Health Dresden-Leipzig. Leipzig University is in charge of 21 coordinated programmes funded by the German research foundation, and several early career research groups. More than 100 research projects in Leipzig have been funded by the EU. Interdisciplinary centers include the Leipzig Research Center for Early Childhood Development and the Leipzig Research Center Global Dynamics.

The University of Leipzig Medical Center (ULMC) and the Faculty of Medicine (MFL) form a joint institution committed to excellence in high-performance medicine, medical research and teaching as well as in in- and outpatient healthcare services for patients of the entire region of Western Saxony and beyond. The LUM is committed to provide the highest level of medical care and treatment - as a maximum care hospital, it offers a full range of modern medical services and combines state-of-the-art medicine with outstanding teaching and research. The hospital comprises 29 clinical units and 8 diagnostic institutes organized in 7 departments, closely with the clinical and theoretical institutes in the Faculty of Medicine. With more than 1,400 beds and 104 acute day hospital treatment places, it is one of the largest hospitals in the federal state of Saxony. More than 50.000 patients are treated in inpatient departments and more than 370,000 outpatient visits are performed each year. With more than 6,000 employees, it is also one of the biggest employers in the region.

The Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at ULMC (director: Prof. Dr. G. Schomerus) is an internationally recognized leading center for stigma research. It has prolific experience with methodologically innovative population studies on attitudes towards persons with mental illness, help-seeking, mental health literacy and the stigma of substance use disorders. Current studies include the long-term time trend study 'Evolution of public attitudes towards persons with mental illness', a DFG-funded study to identify social milieus with low access to mental health care, a DFG-funded study examining online interventions in order to understand and improve help-seeking in persons with currently untreated mental disorders, and a BMG-funded project devoted to designing and disseminating guidelines for non-stigmatizing media reporting of substance use disorders (FairMediaSUCHT).

The Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Medicine and Public Health (ISAP) at the Medical Faculty in Leipzig (Chair: S. Riedel-Heller) researches the intersections between health and society, with a particular focus on public mental health. ISAP addresses a plethora of research issues within the fields of epidemiology, health service research, health promotion and quality of life over the entire life-course. More novel and innovative approaches to health service provision, e.g. E-mental-health and its practical implementation, constitute another central research interest of the institute.

Founded in 1994, the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology (Chair: A. Mehnert-Theuerkauf) has established strong expertise in both epidemiological and clinical research on the distribution, risk factors as well as prognostic factors associated with mental disorders and psychological symptom burden in at-risk-populations. The department's research focus includes e.g. suicide research, psychotraumatology and migration research, psychometrics and quality-of-life research, psychooncology, as well as studies into young adults with cancer, survivorship, and societal and medical change.

The Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at ULMC (chair: A. Kersting) focuses on the evaluation of new (particularly online) interventions. It has pioneered narrative internet therapy for persons suffering from traumatic experiences and prolonged grief. The Department currently hosts a DFG-funded study for the treatment of patients with Prolonged Grief Disorder (PROGRID) and is currently investigating internet-based therapies for physicians with traumatic work-related experiences (IPSA). Other lines of research include eating disorders and peripartum mental health, a self-help application for refugees (HELP@APP), and internet therapy after cancer-related loss of a relative. Another methodological focus is on eye tracking in relation to recognizing emotional facial expressions and processes of early and late attention allocation to emotional information in clinical depression and alexithymia.

Research at the Department of Pediatric Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig Medical Center (Chair: K. von Klitzing) is devoted to forms and courses of mental suffering in the context of human development (developmental psychopathology), most notably childhood depression, early adversities and psychotherapeutic interventions for children with internalizing disorders and their families. Study is oriented towards observable manifestations of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence and focuses in particular on the interactions of biological, social and psychological factors in disease pathogenesis.

The Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology (IMISE) (director: Prof. Dr. M. Löffler) at the University of Leipzig provides wide ranging expertise in biostatistics, epidemiology, genetic statistics, dynamic modelling of diseases and medical informatics. Key projects include the Center for Clinical Trials (ZKS), the Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics (IZBI), the LIFE Research Center for Civilisation Diseases and the SMITH-consortium for Medical Informatics. Major research activities include observational and clinical trials in various diseases, genetic and molecular epidemiology, and epidemiological studies. IMISE has over 100 peer reviewed publications per year, e.g. in the NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Nature, Nature Medicine and Nature Genetics.

​The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig (UFZ) is one of the world's leading environmental research centers. Overcoming disciplinary borders between natural, engineering and social sciences, the UFZ explores ways to combine societal development with a healthy environment. The UFZ supports the scientific community, the political arena, the economy and the general public to better understand the consequences of human actions on the environment and to guide social decision-making processes. It boasts innovative scientific infrastructures and nurtures indispensable national and international cooperation, enabling problem-solving at the highest level. S. Kabisch is Speaker of the Section on Urban transformation at UFZ and Head of the Department for Urban and Environmental Sociology and Urban Geography and Social Sciences at Leipzig University. She has internationally recognized expertise in long-term studies in urban sociology and socio-spatial differentiation processes.