Internal funding opportunities
PMU Nuremberg - Salzburg Bridge Research Initiative (Brückenschlag)
The “Bridge” funding stream is aimed at all researchers at the PMU locations in Salzburg and Nuremberg who are currently collaborating or wish to collaborate on joint projects. The goal is to strengthen cross-location research cooperation.
Call
Call 2026: Submission deadline is October 15, 2026.
Note: The guidelines have been revised:
- NEW: Applicants may now also request funding for their own personnel costs.
- NEW: If artificial intelligence is used in the preparation of the application, this must be indicated in the application.
Application eligibility
In principle, all research staff of Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) at the Salzburg and Nuremberg locations, as well as at the associated University Hospital Salzburg and Klinikum Nuremberg, are eligible to apply.
Applicants must be organized within a research consortium, which must consist of at least one lead scientist (PI) from the participating clinics or research institutions (core team). Additional members from other research institutions are welcome. One member of the core team will be designated to take on the administrative leadership of the project (main PI).
The budget allocation for the research should be distributed as equally as possible between the locations, although deviations are allowed if justified by the research content.
Research projects with funding up to €25,000 can be applied for by the corresponding "research tandems" from both locations. This funding also serves to support future collaborative research efforts.
The total annual budget for this funding is €50,000 per location.
2025
Project title: Tackling Parkinson’s disease by deciphering ion channelome dynamics in dopaminergic differentiation
Principal Investigator (PI): Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. Boris Musset
Institute: Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology Salzburg
Project title: Interdisciplinary in silico and in vitro drug discovery against the nosocomial bacterial pathogen Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (DruDiSteMa)
Principal Investigator (PI): Apl. Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Ralph Bertram
Institute: Institute of Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Infection Control Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Insitute of Pharmacy Salzburg
Project title: SMART Trial - Cost-Efficiency and Workflow Enhancement through AI-Assisted Fracture Detection in the Emergency Department
Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Martin Breitwieser, MBA, BSc
Institute: Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology Salzburg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Surgery Salzburg; Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology Nuremberg; Department of Pediatric Surgery Nuremberg
Project title: Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN) - Risk Prediction and Treatment
Principal Investigator (PI): Priv. Doz. Dr. rer. nat. Florian Rieder, MA
Institute: Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Salzburg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Institute of Clinical Pharmacology Nuremberg; Department of Internal Medicine III - Division of Hematology, Medical Oncology, Hemostaseology, Rheumatology, Infectiology and Oncologic Center Salzburg; Institute of General Practice, Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine Salzburg
2024
Project title: Therapy of acute and chronic subdural hematomas and their recurrences
Principal Investigator (PI): MUDr. Adrian Liebert
Institute: Department of Neurosurgery Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Neurosurgery Salzburg
Project title: HEADSTART (Hospital-wide Evaluation and Analysis of Differing Skull Reconstruction Techniques Across Regions)
Principal Investigator (PI): PD Dr. med. Julius Höhne
Institute: Department of Neurosurgery Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Neurosurgery Salzburg
Project title: Multi-array miRNA approach and associated protein expression profiling for the development of predictive and prognostic biomarkers in esophageal adenocarcinoma.
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Dr. Markus Diener
Institute: Department of General-, Visceral- and Thoracic Surgery Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Surgery Salzburg; Department of General-, Visceral- and Thoracic Surgery Nuremberg
Project title: Real-world Cisplatin-Ototoxicity in Adult Patients with Bronchial Carcinoma or Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Pilot Study and Registry
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Dr. med. Simon Jäger
Institute: Institute of Clinical Pharmacology Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology Salzburg
2023
Project title: Inflammatory response in diabetic tendons - a potential role of tenophages
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof.in Dr.in Gundula Schulze-Tanzil
Institute: Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Institute of Tendon and Bone Regeneration Salzburg; Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology Nuremberg
Project title: Oral microbiome and metabolic adaptation processes for increased aggressiveness of oral squamous cell carcinoma
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. Alexander Eckert
Institute: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Salzburg
Project title: AI3PB - AI Phenotyping Beyond Blue Bloater and Pink Puffer
Principal Investigator (PI): Sebastian Seurig
Institute: Department of Internal Medicine III, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Allergology and Sleep Medicine Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Research Program of Biomedical Data Science Salzburg
Project title: Development of a new protective solution for vein grafts in bypass surgery
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Dr. Theodor Fischlein
Institute: Department of Cardiac Surgery Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Cardiac Surgery Salzburg
2022
Project title: Decision making for surgical BPH therapy – Support by neuronal networks and machine learning algorithms for patient-related outcome
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Dr. Sascha Pahernik
Institute: Department of Urology Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Urology and Andrology Salzburg; Biostatistics SALK
Project title: Early Cardiac Surgery-associated Acute Kidney Injury Detection using Artificial Intelligence-based Algorithm
Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Christian Dinges, MSc
Institute: Department of Cardiac Surgery Salzburg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Cardiac Surgery Nuremberg
Project title: Surveillance and molecular investigations of hypervirulent clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Dr. Jörg Steinmann
Institute: Institute of Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Infection Control Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Institute of Clinical Microbiology and Hygiene Salzburg
Project title: Diabetes mellitus type II: Does vitamin K2 (MK7) affect cardiac fibrosis in cardiomyopathy progression - insights from a rat diabetes model
Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Dr. Gundula Schulze-Tanzil
Institute: Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology Nuremberg
Participating Organizational Units/Institutes: Department of Internal Medicine II - Division of Cardiology Salzburg
Application process
Applications for the “Bridge” Funding must be submitted via the online application form (Jotform).
The following documents must also be uploaded as part of the application:
- Application template
- Scientific CV, including the 10 most recent publications and other outstanding scientific achievements
- Letter of confirmation from the executive boards of the participating institutions
- Ethics approval or IRB confirmation (if available)
- Animal research approval/application (if available)
Submission via the online application form is mandatory. In addition, the use of the official application template is required. Applications submitted outside the online portal cannot be accepted and will be considered a formal deficiency in accordance with the PMU-RIF Guidelines.
For further information on the Bridging Grant, please refer to the Guidelines.
If you encounter any problems with submitting the application via Jotform, you are welcome to contact the Research Office in Nuremberg (Forschungsreferat@klinikum-nuernberg.de, Dr. Ruder: Tel.: +49 911 3987394 or Mr. Hämmerich: Tel.: +49 911 3987002) or the Research Management Office at PMU Salzburg (forschung.service@pmu.ac.at, Tel.: +43 (0)662 2420-80286).