What?
A funding program of the respective Cancer Centers of the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) brings together young clinical and scientific researchers. The “Cooperative NORD-Networking for Early Career Teams” program, CONNECT for short, enables tandem teams from the University Cancer Center Schleswig-Holstein (UCCSH) in Kiel and Lübeck and the University Cancer Center Hamburg (UCC Hamburg) to spend a year of research together. This grant sponsorship started in 2023 and has already supported 16 projects, including the running projects from 2026. CONNECT is financially supported by the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein and the Hamburg Mildred Scheel Centre for Young Scientists, which is funded by German Cancer Aid. At the end of the joint research period, the projects are presented at the cross-site Northern Oncology Research & Development (NORD) seminar.
The UCC Hamburg and UCCSH have jointly submitted an application for designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) funded by the German Cancer Aid. The application is currently under review. If successful, the consortium would become the first CCC network in northern Germany and join the existing Comprehensive Cancer Centers supported by German Cancer Aid. If the application is approved, funding would begin in 2027.
In order to connect both centers in advance in the best possible way and to launch joint initiatives, numerous activities are already ongoing within several working groups.
As part of the „Early Career Researchers Support” from both cancer centers the CONNECT grants aim to ensure that early career scientists, both clinician and medical scientist, can contribute to the aspired closer co-operation.
Therefore, we will award up to 50,000 € per project for one year according to your plans for innovative and trend-setting team projects between UCCSH (Kiel or Lübeck) and UCC Hamburg scientists.
You are an interested scientist?
Team up with partners (teams from two to four researchers are eligible) from the respective other center (UCCSH or UCC Hamburg) and hand in your joint proposal (one joint proposal by all partners) until September 1st, 2026.
5th call for CONNECT Grants
Dear all,
Over the past years, collaboration between the University Cancer Center Hamburg (UCC Hamburg) and the University Cancer Center Schleswig-Holstein (UCCSH) has steadily grown across multiple levels - particularly in joint research activities.
To further strengthen collaboration among early career researchers across Hamburg, Kiel, and Lübeck, we established the CONNECT* Grants as a dedicated seed funding instrument.
Now entering its 5th call (2026, funding period 2027), CONNECT has already enabled numerous successful cross-site collaborations.
We are therefore pleased to announce the 5th call for CONNECT Grants:
We invite you to identify a collaboration partner at the respective partner site - for example during upcoming NORD events (see: UKSH – UCCSH - Scientific Exchange + Research Events) - and submit your joint project proposal by September 1st, 2026 via e-mail to ucch.science.info@uke.de (subject: “CONNECT 2027”).
Detailed information on the application process, including the proposal template, can be found in the attached documents. Sarah Habig and Inga Melzer will also present the CONNECT funding line in the NORD seminar (online) on June 23rd, 5 pm. If you are looking for a suitable collaboration partner or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us - we are happy to support matchmaking across sites.
We look forward to receiving your innovative joint research ideas and to further strengthening our collaborative network.
With best regards,
Your NORD (Northern Oncology Research & Development) Early Career Support Team
* CONNECT = Cooperative NORD Networking for Early Career Teams
More questions?
Mail to science.uccsh@uksh.de