A junior research group for rehabilitation sciences will begin its work at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences in future. The new junior research group will be funded for five years by the German Pension Insurance Oldenburg-Bremen. The foundation agreement has now been signed.
They have been cooperating since 1999: the University of Oldenburg and the German Pension Insurance (DRV) Oldenburg Bremen. This co-operation is now being intensified - with a new junior research group for rehabilitation sciences.
"Expanding the good and trusting cooperation with the German Pension Insurance is particularly important to us - especially in the field of rehabilitation science. The new junior research group is both a great asset for the School of Medicine and an important bridge to other areas of the university, such as special education and rehabilitation education," said acting University President Prof Dr Katharina Al-Shamery.
"Close links with the region are important to us in order to demonstrate the impetus that can come from a pension insurance institution," emphasised DRV Chairman Cornelius Neumann-Redlin. "The establishment of the European Medical School is an excellent way to do this."
The DRV Oldenburg-Bremen is providing an annual endowment of up to 150,000 euros for five years for the junior research group at the Department of Health Services Research at the School of Medicine. The university will use these funds to employ two scientists, plus a half-time position for technical and administrative tasks.
Rehabilitation scientists develop, review and improve concepts, methods and structures of rehabilitative patient care and thus help patients with corresponding illnesses to return to and participate in work and social life.
"Anchoring rehabilitation sciences - initially in the form of a junior research group - in the School and the Department of Health Services Research is a very important concern for us, because this discipline is not adequately represented in the science and teaching of medicine despite its great and constantly growing clinical importance," says the Dean of Faculty VI, Prof Dr Gregor Theilmeier. The DRV Oldenburg-Bremen is providing the junior research group with additional project funding to set up research projects.
Deputy DRV Managing Director Christian Wolff emphasised that the further development of rehabilitation science knowledge makes an important contribution to improving quality, which benefits insured persons and their employers in the region. The intensified co-operation makes the three DRV rehabilitation clinics in Bad Kissingen, Bad Wildungen and Bad Schwalbach official "academic teaching facilities" of School VI at the University of Oldenburg. In future, their students will be able to spend time there as part of their training.
In addition to rehabilitation sciences, the partners, the University and DRV Oldenburg-Bremen, want to work together more closely in future in the further education and training of their staff, in organisational and administrative matters and with regard to electronic data processing and IT. Both sides are striving for a regular knowledge transfer and exchange of information, whether in joint project groups or in quarterly meetings of a cooperation committee.