The good news became official upon the receipt of the funding notification: Ulm University has been awarded a new Collaborative Research Centre (CFC) for trauma research. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) has approved funding of over € 11.2 million to set up 
CFC 1149 – for an initial period of four years. The Trauma CFC, designed to run for up to twelve years, is called “Danger Response, Disturbance Factors and Regenerative Potential after Acute Trauma”. A total of 18 hospitals and institutes from Ulm University Hospital and Ulm University collaborate in the joint research project.
Physical trauma such as serious injuries sustained in an accident, is the leading cause of death for people under the age of 45 in this country, involving healthcare costs of up to € 30 billion a year. Thanks to the approval of the Collaborative Research Centre, our proven expertise in musculoskeletal trauma research will attract even greater interest at the national and international level. I offer my sincere congratulations to the applicants for this tremendous success,” states University President Prof Karl Joachim Ebeling.
"When people sustain injuries from accidents or violence, organs and tissue suffer from physical damage. Such traumas are often associated with severe complications,” states CFC Coordinator Prof Florian Gebhard, explaining the medical relevance of the major project. The Medical Director of the Clinic for Trauma Surgery, Hand Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Surgery at Ulm University Hospital coordinates the collaborative research project involving a total of 20 individual projects that have been approved. “The aim of this Collaborative Research Centre is to explore the body’s systemic responses to serious injury,” says Gebhard. These responses range from the impairment of healing processes to whole-body inflammation or multiple organ failure.
Improving treatment success using individualised therapies
“Successful clinical trauma management necessitates individualised therapies that can react appropriately to personal requirements,” explains the Deputy Coordinator of the CFC Prof Anita Ignatius, Director of the Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics. For this reason, one of the key topics addresses the role played by individual factors such as previous diseases and co-morbidities. Another key area is the molecular control of physiological “danger responses”. After all, severe injury to tissue or organs often triggers dangerous inflammatory processes. On the other hand, under certain circumstances, processes are also initiated that suppress inflammatory reactions. The scientists want to find out which signal transmission mechanisms can be used to achieve the molecular control of such reactions. The third overarching research area is devoted to the development of effective trauma therapies. Can posttraumatic inflammatory processes be specifically controlled by the use of stem cells or mediators? How can wound healing and tissue regeneration be promoted individually? 
“The fact that our joint application was hardly reduced at all, in spite of the stiff competition, shows that we concentrated on the right focal areas and no compromises were made at the expense of quality in our selection of topics. Not only are all of the scientists involved specialists in their field – they can also make an important contribution to trauma research,” emphasises Prof Markus Huber-Lang. The Head of the Trauma Immunology Clinical Research Group at the Clinic for Trauma Surgery, Hand Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Surgery is also Deputy Coordinator of the CFC. “We are delighted that this huge joint scientific effort has paid off, enabling us to lay the financial foundations to continue to make substantial contributions to this important field of research,” enthuse lead applicants Gebhard, Huber-Lang and Ignatius.