Good news for everyone who would still like to submit their work to the 13th Helmholtz Diabetes Conference: the abstract submission deadline has been extended to 15 July 2026. Join us in Munich from 21–23 September 2026 for three days of cutting-edge diabetes and metabolism research under this year’s theme “Diabetes Across the Lifespan”.  

From May 15–17, 2026, visitors to the Deutsches Museum had the opportunity to explore the fascinating world of diabetes research at our pop-up exhibition Diabetes Uncovered. Through interactive stations, hands-on activities, and conversations with scientists and people living with diabetes, visitors of all ages gained insights into how diabetes affects the body, current treatment approaches, and…

We would like to draw your attention to our upcoming pop-up exhibition “Diabetes in Focus/Diabetes Uncovered”, organized by the International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes together with the German Center for Diabetes Research and the Deutsches Museum. It is putting the spotlight on diabetes — brought to life in a way that’s interactive, visual and understandable! 

On May 5, 2026, the Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes (HRD), together with members of the doctoral researcher organizing team, hosted the HRD Research, Careers and Community Day 2026 at the Helmholtz Munich Conference Centre.

On April 29, 2026, the Helmholtz Diabetes Research School organized an industry visit to Proteintech in Martinsried for doctoral researchers from Helmholtz Munich. The visit provided valuable insights into biotechnology careers, scientific innovation, and opportunities for exchange between academia and industry.

Congratulations to Anne-Marie from the Institute for Metabolism and Immunology on winning a €1,000 HELENA Travel Grant at the 1st Helmholtz Munich 3MT® Competition, held on 24 February 2026 at the Helmholtz Campus in Neuherberg.  

We are pleased to announce Katharina Laurent and Lara-Leonie Fetzer as the newly elected Doctoral Researcher Representatives of the International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes (HRD).

From Muscle Ageing to Metabolism: Discover the Highlights from Our Mini Symposium!

Six outstanding interns joined our SIP for eight weeks of research, seminars, and scientific exchange at the Helmholtz Diabetes Center.

Congrats to Cristina, winner of the HRD Grant Writing Challenge 2025!

Inspiration, insight, and community: The HRD Retreat 2025 in Austria

On April 2nd and 3rd, 2025, we hosted the 4th "Introduction to Diabetes Research" course for doctoral researchers, held at the HPC Creativity Lab. The two-day event brought together leading experts to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements in diabetes research.

A Day of Science and Discovery for pupils at the Helmholtz Diabetes Center

HRD Best Thesis Award 2024 - Congratulations to Özum Sehnaz Caliskan  

Congratulations to our winners:   Bhargavi and Sandra

Congratulations to our second winners:   Mireia, Patricia and Sophie!  

On 11th February, 2025, we will host our 3rd HRD 3MT® Competition. It is a great chance for our doctoral researchers to present their thesis and practice their science communication skills.  Their talk must be aimed at a non-expert audience with a time limit of 3 minutes! We are looking forward to an exciting competition!

The HRD team is pleased to announce that eight doctoral researchers will have the opportunity to visit the Heidelberg University Hospital and gain valuable insights into diabetes research from a clinical perspective.

Apply now for your summer internship in diabetes research.

Johanna has won the HRD Best Thesis Award 2023 and the prize of 3000€!

It's a wrap! Two days of science, networking..

Did you submit your PhD thesis between 1st December 2022 and 30th November 2023?    

Emad is a doctoral researcher at the University of Alberta. He joined Helmholtz Munich for a research stay from May to October 2023. Learn more about his person as well as his top 3 highlights of his stay.

Huge congratulations to Dr. Vignesh Karthikaisamy on the successful defense of his PhD thesis.  

This year's Diabetes Conference was a great success! In the spotlight of this year's event: the next generation of successful young researchers.

Congratulations on the successful defence of your PhD thesis...

We are very pleased to introduce our newest team members: Dr. Luke Harrison and Melanie Bock. Welcome!

Congratulations to the winners of the HRD Grant Writing Challenge:   Miriam Bernecker & Elena Garcia Clavé AND Priyadharishini Ayyappan & Theodore dos Santos!  

On March 15, 2023, a cyberattack from an external source was detected at Helmholtz Munich. Immediately extensive defensive measures were taken. As a result, some employees have still very limited access to their email and telephone.

We are pleased to introduce our new HRD doctoral researcher representatives:   Patricia Velado (ITS) and Sandra Dirschl (IDF)

Julia has won the HRD Best Thesis Award 2022 and the prize of 3000 Euro!

Do you have passion for diabetes research, curiosity and a desire to expand your career opportunities?

We have established a LinkedIn group to facilitate the professional networking between our past and present members such as exchanging advice on funding programs, training and career events as well as job opportunities.

Did you write up your thesis recently and are you eager to win 3000€? Then join our HRD Best Thesis Award 2022 competition! The call is open to HRD members that submitted their doctoral thesis between 1st Dec 2021 and 31st Dec 2022. At the time of application the thesis needs to be submitted, but not necessarily defended.   What is required? -> 1-page summary of the work written in non-expert…

Since this month, Sofia Kappel is rejoining the HRD as scientific coordinator. Welcome back!

This year´s HRD Introdcution to Diabetes Research Course took place in hybrid format from 13th to 14th October, with speakers from the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI), Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) and Helmholtz Pioneer Campus (HPC).  

This year´s 4th Annual Joint Symposium between the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) and the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) took place on the 14th and 15th July 2022. The ADI members could finally visit us in person in Munich. Another highlight was the satellite event "Future of Diabetes Research and Treatment" on 13th July hosted by HRD and the Canadian Embassy in Germany and featuring experts…

Once again you had the chance to win one of the 3 tickets for the participation at the 9th Helmholtz Diabetes Conference. These lucky 3 winners were drawn in the raffle and each won a ticket:

Congratulations to our two winners:   Hannah Hipp and Tobias Greisle!

In cooperation with the Clinic for Endocrinology and Diabetology at Heidelberg University Hospital, HRD organised a clinical visit and offered unique insights into the translation of diabetes research.  

As the first HRD exchange student, our doctoral researcher Alina (Dr. Maria Rohm's group) spent three months in Edmonton at the University of Alberta, starting this January.    The scientific visit at the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) had to be postponed several times due to the pandemic and everyone was very excited that it was finally possible. Alina was warmly welcomed by Prof. Patrick…

The 2022 ADI / HRD Graduate Studentship Award competition is now accepting applications.  

This year's HRD Interview Symposium again took place virtually from the 24th - 26th January 2022.  

This year´s 3rd Annual Joint Symposium between the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) and the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) took place again digitally in the format of a 2-day symposium on the 8th and 9th of December 2021.  

We have recieved over 160 applications from 49 different countries for our HRD 2022 International PhD Program. All applications are currently going through the screening process and successful applicants will then be invited to the interview symposium from 24-26.01.2022. Good luck to the applicants!    

The International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes opens a new application call for 2022, from August 19th - October 8th, 2021.

The 2021 ADI / HRD Graduate Studentship Award competition is now accepting applications.  

The two days HRD Course in Diabetes Research on 14th and 15th of April was a great success! 18 group leaders from the Helmholtz Diabetes Center in Munich, Leipzig and Tübingen, as well as from the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus presented their research, current state-of-the-art technologies exisiting at the Helmholtz Center and hence the variety of excellence in diabetes research.

Congratulations to the winners of the HRD Grant Writing Challenge! Sara Bilekova and Johanna Siehler won 6000€ for their research proposal!

This year's HRD Interview Symposium took place virtually from the 8th - 10th of March 2021. We received over 150 applications for our HRD 2021 International PhD Program and invited 13 international candidates.

16 HDC experts from Munich, Leipzig and Tübingen will introduce you to their research - offering lectures about latest research development at the HDC, state of the art technologies, clinical work and bridging aspects of T1D and T2D! Your chance to learn and ask all questions you have!

On Tuesday, the HDC Data Blitz Session took place within the HDC Webinar series. Thanks to Luiza Lutomska, Monica Gomez und Lena Oppenlaender for presenting their very interesting project ideas!    

The HRD sponsors the HD conference registration fee for 16 HDC graduate students who won a ticket in our raffle.

Last week our election for the new HRD student representatives took place. Thank you for taking part in the 2021 HRD student representative election and also a big thank you to this year's candidates!  

This year's HRD Interview Symposium will take place virtually from the 8th - 10th of March 2021, and we have invited 16 international candidates.

With the start of the new year there are also some changes at the HRD. Prof. Stephan Herzig passed his position as HRD spokesperson now to Carolin Daniel! We are very happy to have her on board! We are also pleased to announce that Paul Pfluger has joined the management board as our new scientist representative. We look forward to working together for a successful new year 2021!   Prof.…

Our 2nd Annual Joint Symposium between the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) and the Alberta Diabetes Institute (ADI) took place digitally in the format of a 2-day symposium on the 3rd and 4th of December, 2020, broadcasted from Munich.

Our HDC PhD students have the chance to win one of 10 tickets for the participation in the conference.

Do you want to develop your own research project? Get a head start working on your own research ideas? Then join our HRD Grant Writing Challenge: Write a grant proposal and win prize money for your project! The call is open to HDC PhD students at the end of their 2nd year or higher.

Our next online data blitz session will take place on November 24, 2020.  

Final deadline for applications is Friday, October 23rd, 2020!   We are looking forward to your application.

Congratulations to the four ADI Trainees who were awarded a 2020 ADI / HRD Graduate Studentship.

Due to the current situation the DZD Diabetes Research School will turn into an interactive online lecture series in September and October.

Yesterday, our first Online HDC Data Blitz Session took place within the HDC Webinar series. Thanks to Julia Zuber, Anna Karolina Blöchinger, Ciro Salinno, Katharina Wißmiller and Guoli Ma for presenting their very interesting project ideas!      

Over the last two days the HRD Interview Symposium took place at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. We received applications for our HRD 2020 International PhD Program from over 44 different countries and invited 11 international candidates who had the chance to prove themselves through the Interview Symposium.

Many thanks to Prof. Nawroth and Dr. S. Kopf and the Heidelberg team for the excellent organinzation and implementation of the program. It was a great chance for our Doctoral Researchers to visit the hospital in Heidelberg for detailed clinical training from January 22nd-24th, 2020.

Thanks to Perla Cota (IDR), Anna-Lena Amend (IEG), Selina Höckele (IEG) and Mohamed Ahmed Elhadad (EPI) for presenting their very interesting project ideas during our HDC Flash Talks!    

The International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes wishes you a warm and wonderful christmas and a very happy new year!  We are looking forward to continued success next year and we want to thank all our partners, colleagues and doctoral researchers for the great collaboration.

Thanks to the Alberta Diabetes Institute for being such excellent hosts!

Yesterday, we hosted our 1st HRD 3MT® Competition. Many thanks to all 13 participants who made this competition so successful. It was a great chance to present their thesis and practice their science communication skills.  Their talk needed to be aimed at a non-expert audience with a time limit of 3 minutes! The concept was received very well and we are looking forward to our next event.

  On 20th of November, we will host our first 3 Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®)!    

If you would like to apply to the International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes please use our online application system. For additional information please also see our research projects and application procedure.  

Book your appointment at the Career Center  The HMGU Career Center offers Postdocs and Doctoral Students a wide range of services at each step of the career development process such as flexible personal consultation sessions, company visits, career meetups with peers as well as online resources. Visit our website to book a consultation appointment or to stay informed about upcoming events and…

Yesterday our first Data Blitz Session has started within the HDC Seminar Series!

Next week we are starting our new session "Women in Science" with our HDC guest Prof. Chantal Mathieu from KU Leuven (Belgium).

The International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes (HRD) has officially launched on the 01.07.2019!  

The 7th DZD Diabetes Research School will take place in Barcelona right before the start of the EASD Annual Meeting.

Thanks to the support by the DZD Next program and DZD networks to the coordinators of young scientist program at the Lund University, the first 6 HRD PhD students joined an introductory post-graduate course at the Lund Diabetes Center for one week, March 25th-29th, 2019, as part of their graduate studies.       Lectures, discussion and clinical visits provided a great overview on all areas of…

For the 7th time, the Helmholtz Zentrum München is organising this annual high-impact conference series. Internationally leading scientists in diabetes research are joining us here in Munich to present and discuss their most recent data and achievements during this event.      

The International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes (HRD) opened a call for PhD students at the Alberta Diabetes Institute, Canada.  

The 55th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes will take place from September, 16th to 20th 2019 in Barcelona.

Great news for our  HDC doctoral students. Thanks to the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) they can participate in the "Post Graduate Program in Diabetes Research" at the Diabetes Center of the University of Lund (LUDC), Sweden. The DZD has a well-established and successful cooperation with the LUDC. In a well-designed and established training course run by international diabetes experts,…

This year, the Wageningen University European Study Trip 2019 visited the Helmholtz Zentrum München during their 1-week tour to research institutions around Munich and Vienna.

If you are interested to join the autumn conference of the German Society for Diabetes (DDG): The German Society for Diabetes has 50 travel grants - each 250 € including free entrance - for their conference on November 9th - 10th, 2018 in Wiesbaden, Germany. Deadline for application is September 7th 2018!

The call for applications to the International Helmholtz Research School 2018 is now closed. We received applications from over 40 different countries. Thank you all for submitting your applications! We will start the reviewing process now and will get back to all applicants soon. Please stay tuned for upcoming information.

The 6th Helmholtz Diabetes Conference will take place from September 26 to 28 2018 at Palais Lenbach Munich. The meeting brings together international top leaders in the field of diabetes to enable the identification of, and potential solutions to, the preeminent scientific challenges facing the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. Moreover the conference will feature two award…

The 6th DZD Diabetes Research School will take place in Berlin from September 29 to October 1, 2018. The School's speakers list includes renowned diabetes scientists who will give exiting insights of the current translational diabetes research. Attendees of the DZD Diabetes Research School will again have the opportunity to present their own research and discuss the current research trends with…

After one week at the Alberta Diabetes Center (ADI) in Canada eight graduate students of the Helmholtz Diabetes Center (HDC) returned back to Munich with new experiences. During the intensive program together with ADI students they presented their research, discussed their ideas together with experts in the diabetes field, and visited and trained in ADI labs.

The 54th EASD Annual Meeting (EASD 2018) in Berlin, Germany will again present science of the highest caliber. From 1 to 5 October 2018, the programme will comprise six parallel tracks which will include stimulating symposia, keynote lectures and debates covering basic and clinical science in diabetes research.

The first Munich-Canada Diabetes Research Exchange with graduate students from the Helmholtz Diabetes Center in Munich and the Alberta Diabetes Institute in Edmonton will start this weekend. Graduate students will be sharing their research, hearing lectures from Institute scientists, taking part in technical training and attending career development workshops. During the 10-day visit student…

The Alberta Diabetes Institute at the University of Alberta, Edmonton and Helmholtz Diabetes Center are joining forces to establish the International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes. Networking on an international scale, innovative translational approaches and new interdisciplinary collaborations will provide an excellent training setting for future leaders in diabetes research.  

The new logo for the International Helmholtz Research School is now here!  

The first Graduate Student Representatives of the International Helmholtz Research School for Diabetes are Lea Bühler from the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer and Luke Harrison from the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity.  As this, they are invaluable members of the management board where they represent the interests of all graduate students of the Helmholtz Diabetes Center and promote the…

The first Munich - Canada Diabetes Research PhD Exchange offers highly motivated Phd students from the Helmholz Diabetes Center in Munich and the Alberta Diabetes Institute in Canada to network and discuss their research and ideas on all aspects from basic to translational diabetes research. The Munich - Canada Diabetes Research PhD Exchange will take place at the University of Alberta, Canada…

The International Helmholtz Reserach School for Diabetes focuses on scientific and translational training providing future research leaders with an excellent environment to study the diverse aspects of diabetes. Our international call opens from May 4th 2018 to 29th June 2018.

Dr. Sofia Sasse is the new coodinator of the International Helmholtz Research School. As the contact person she offers support in all matters for PhD students and supervisors - not only of the research school but also of the Helmholtz Diabetes Institutes.