iFIT Cluster of Excellence successfully extended

On Thursday, the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Bonn announced that under the German government’s Excellence Strategy the University of Tübingen will receive funding for six Clusters of Excellence starting on January 1, 2026. This includes three existing clusters whose funding has been renewed. Under the Excellence Strategy guidelines, the University of Tübingen can now apply for the second funding line to renew its status as one of Germany’s Universities of Excellence.

With these words the official press release of the University of Tübingen starts. One of the mentioned Clusters that got a second funing period is the iFIT (Image-guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies) where the Werner Siemen Imaging Center participates in. With our iFIT Professors and dear colleagues Prof. Dr. Anna Junker, Prof. Dr. André Ferreira Martins and Prof. Dr. Bettina Weigelin we are lookinmg towards an exciting and aslo challenging new funding period of another seven years.

The success of iFIT to date has contributed to the University of Tübingen becoming a new branch of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), which promotes early clinical trials. This collaboration allows academically developed cancer drugs to be tested more quickly in clinical trials. This ultimately will help to improve the prognosis of cancer patients. 

We are incredibly grateful that we are able to continue our successful journey in conducting cancer research at the highes level. It shows what an outstanding research environment has been created over the years with tremendous opportunities for example with the NCT (Nationales Centrum für Tumorerkrankungen) as a great bench to bedside pipeline. This would have never been able without such great scientists beginning with our PhD students and all the way up to our spokespersons.

Spokesperson for the cluster is the oncologist Professor Lars Zender, Medical Director of Medical Oncology and Pulmonology (Internal Medicine VIII). The deputy co-spokespersons are the immunologist Professor Juliane Walz, Head of Peptide-Based Immunotherapy at the University Hospital; and Professor Bernd Pichler, Director of Preclinical Imaging and Radiopharmacy and of the Werner Siemens Imaging Center.

Link to the official DFG press release

Link to the official Univeristy of Tübingen press release

Link to the iFIT Cluster of Excellence