Research activities within the Helmholtz Association are organised in six research fields, each consisting of several research programmes. In a five-years frequency the centres of the Helmholtz Association apply for funding in the different HGF-research programmes in a competitive process.

Our institute will now focus entirely on the programme “Infection and Immunity”, which was substantially restructured and optimised. The aim of the programme is to contribute to solving the grand challenges in infection research by building a strong basis in basic research and applying this knowledge to develop new strategies for prevention and therapy for translation into public health benefi ts. To address these challenges the restructured programme “Infection and Immunity” will include activities in five areas of infectious disease research which are pooled in the following topics:

• Microbial Pathogenesis
• Host Resistance and Susceptibility
• Infl ammation and Immunity
• Strategies for Prevention and Therapy
• Translational Infection Research

Although the division into these topics provides an important conceptual framework for the strategic development of the programme, there is a close interaction and considerable overlap between these topics that is essential for the overall success of the programme to reach its goals.