Helpful Information

On this page, MSNZ fellows, but also all other interested Clinician and Medical Scientists, will find helpful links and references to training courses, funding opportunities, calls for proposals from other funding bodies and much more.

We are also happy to provide you with advice and support, should you not be able to find what you are looking for here!

Please contact us via E-Mail at msnz@uke.de .
Postal address:
MSNZ Hamburg / UKE
Dr. Inga Melzer
Martinistr. 52, Building O43, R. 101
20246 Hamburg

Support for Families

One point firmly anchored in the UKE and also in our programme is to provide the best possible support for our scholarship holders who are parents.

Becoming an executive, being a manager, being able to independently design and lead a research project and at the same time "being there" for one's own family, but also the knowledge that one's own children are well looked after or the possibility of being able to pass on household tasks in an emergency are important aspects of everyday work, both in the clinic and in the research department.

The UKE itself already offers many support services through UKE INside, such as the UKE's own daycare centre or free holiday care for school children. Guest children of students or colleagues who are working at UKE for a shorter period of time (four weeks to six months; e.g. research stay) can now also be cared for in the UKE day-care center as part of a pilot project.

In addition, the day care centre also offers weekend care for children without a permanent slot in the UKE Kita.
to the UKE Kita (page is in German only)

to the UKEinside for families program

We can offer our MSNZ fellows even more support than the services provided by the UKE.

Since summer 2020, we have been working in cooperation with the Hamburg "Notfallmamas" ( Emergency childcare - Die Notfallmamas ). Here, childcare for children of all ages can be requested from experienced (specialist) staff and booked at short notice. Thus, for example, daycare center closing times or long afternoons in the lab can be covered with loving care without time pressure or a guilty conscience. The care can be booked for a short period of time as well as for longer periods (e.g. one or two specific afternoons/evenings a week on a regular basis). Thanks to the kind support of the German Cancer Aid, the MSNZ will cover the costs upon application. If you are interested, we recommend that you browse through the Notfallmamas website and then contact us by phone or e-mail. We will then assist you with the initial contact and clarify the formalities. You can find a report by Dr. Stefan Werner, who took advantage of this opportunity last summer, under the heading "In person - reports on the experiences of our fellows" further down on this page.

Another cooperation partner, which has also been used since 2020, is the Notmütterdienst Hamburg . Here, childcare can also be booked by the hour with support in the household with children. Especially for small children, regular care by one and the same person over a longer period of time makes sense (reference person), so we gladly recommend to use this offer over a longer period of time. If you are interested: it also only requires an informal inquiry by our fellows, we clarify the coverage of costs with the German Cancer Aid and then commission an initial meeting/contact with a possible caregiver. If the "chemistry" is right: go for it ! Our Fellow Dr. Martin Mynarek also reports about his experiences with the Notmütterdienst in the section "In person".

We look forward to receiving inquiries from our fellows!

In Person - Reports on the Experiences of our Fellows

  • In addition to many other things, we also support our fellows in balancing work and family life.

    In June we launched a cooperation with the Hamburg "Notfallmamas" ( www.notfallmamas.de ). Our colleague Dr. Stefan Werner was the first to test this offer and subsequently told us about his positive experiences:


    MSNZ HH: "How did you come to use the services of the Notfallmamas?"


    S.W.: "After the end of the first Corona lockdown, there was a need for my wife and me to return to the office and also to the lab, respectively. A master thesis and a doctoral dissertation had to be completed and, in addition, the existing IT infrastructure did not allow us to permanently do without the computer in the office and manage everything through remote work.
    At that time, unfortunately, our daughter's school was still closed. The home schooling offered was also unfortunately very scarce or done inefficiently, so she had to spend many mornings and afternoons alone and mostly occupied herself with TV and video games.
    In this situation, the Notfallmamas offer came in handy. Our daughter could be looked after by our "emergency mom" several times a week for four hours, which fundamentally defused the situation and enabled us to work without a guilty conscience or prevented us from stopping work prematurely."


    MSNZ HH: "Did a partnership/getting to know the caregiver come about quickly and easily?"


    S.W.: "The agency was very purposeful in placing us. There were only two phone calls. Getting to know each other was completely uncomplicated. Our emergency mom comes from our district, she was a student teacher at the time, she is a big Harry Potter fan like our daughter and even went to the same school as our daughter until middle school. So our emergency mom was like made up."


    MSNZ HH: "How satisfied were you with the care/did the care meet your expectations?"


    S.W.: "We were very happy with the care, which was especially because the emergency mom got along so well with our daughter. Both of them worked for school first and did something nice together afterwards."


    MSNZ HH: "Would you want to use the services of the Notfallmamas again if needed and would you recommend them?"


    S.W.: "Yes, definitely. It was a super thing, of course we would prefer to have the same emergency mom again. However, I would not like to see any more emergencies. It would be best if the school stayed open and our daughter spent her time with her classmates."

  • Another possibility of family support is the Hamburger Notmütterdienst . Here, too, there is a cooperation with the MSNZ and we can cover the costs for childcare outside the usual framework of daycare or school thanks to the support of the Deutsche Kresbhilfe.

    Our fellow Dr. Martin Mynarek (initially ST-CS, currently partner lab funding) was the first colleague to take advantage of this support and has stayed with it to date (2022) and is very satisfied. In this interview, he tells us about his experiences:

    MSNZ HH: How did you come to make use of the services of the "Notmütterdienst" ?

    MM: I heard from a colleague that it would be possible for MNSZ fellows to receive support to reconcile work and family life beyond the usual possibilities at the UKE, so I contacted Dr. Melzer at MNSZ after my project grant had been approved and when it was clear how long the support would last. Since my wife, who works full time, had become pregnant for the third time shortly before the start of my funding period, there was a great need in our home for further support beyond daycare, and we were looking for suitable and reliable care for our children. Mrs. Melzer then put us in touch with the Notmütterdienst.

    MSNZ HH: Did a partnership/getting to know the caregiver come about quickly and easily ?

    MM: The biggest challenge was to define a regular care need - in a family context, you often don't plan that long term over several weeks. Once we had decided on which days we needed care and for how long, things went very quickly via the Notmütterdienst. Theoretically, even very short-term "emergency care" is conceivable. However, because we were interested in a long-term relationship with a caregiver, we did not have our first appointment to get to know each other until the next week - much sooner than we would have expected.

    MSNZ HH: How satisfied are you with the care/ does the care meet your expectations ?

    MM: The emergency mother service is very flexible and adapts very much to the individual needs of the family. The caregiver who takes care of our children now is very friendly, punctual and reliable.

    MSNZ HH: Would you recommend the services of the "Notmütterdienst" ?

    MM: Absolutely. Having someone look after the kids beyond the family and daycare was a step for us that wasn't easy. The emergency mother service is not a substitute for the grandparents next door, who are basically always there and available at very short notice and have had a relationship with the children for a long time. But it is a very valuable and helpful component in an individual planning of family and career.

Funding programs for oncological research

  • Klinische Forschung und kliniknahe Grundlagenforschung
    Here you can apply for consumables and personnel (similar to "Sachbeihilfe" at the DFG). If this is your first grant application with the DKH, you can also apply for your own position!

    Link: Klinische Forschung & kliniknahe Grundlagenforschung (krebshilfe.de)

    Deadline: no deadline, application is always possible.

    Short-Term Fellowship (for MS and CS, up to 4 months)
    Here you can apply for living expenses and money for travel to spend time in a lab abroad or elsewhere in Germany (with your contract ongoing at your German home institution).

    Eligibility: applicants should be < 35 years old or <6 years after their MD/PhD
    Link: Short Term Fellowship (krebshilfe.de)

    Deadline: no deadline but applications should be submitted at least 3-6 months before the planned stay.