The Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space Travel (BMFTR) has published a new funding measure on the topic "Innovative Data Analysis for Women's Health and Gender-Sensitive Medicine." The goal is to make existing health data more usable through modern data science and AI methods and to reduce gender-specific biases in medical research.

The funding initiative addresses a central issue in health research: the so-called gender data gap. Women are still underrepresented in many medical datasets, which can lead to diagnoses, therapies, and preventive measures not being optimally tailored to their needs. The new announcement is intended to support innovative data-driven approaches to close this gap and further develop gender-sensitive medicine.

AI and health data for better care

Inter- and transdisciplinary research projects are funded that evaluate existing health data using innovative analysis procedures, data science methods, and artificial intelligence. The focus is on clinically relevant questions concerning women's health as well as procedures for identifying and reducing gender-specific biases in datasets and AI models.

The projects should build on existing datasets, for example from the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII), the Network University Medicine (NUM), or the NAKO Health Study. New data collections or clinical studies are not the subject of the funding. Instead, the potential of existing health data for research and care should be better utilized.

Who can apply?

Eligible applicants are state and state-recognized universities as well as institutionally funded non-university research institutions. A prerequisite is an interdisciplinary project team that combines expertise from the fields of data science, medical informatics, or AI with clinical research on women's health or gender-sensitive medicine.

Individual projects with a duration of usually up to two years are funded. In addition to personnel and material resources, costs for data access, open-access publications, science communication, and the involvement of patients can be considered.

Deadlines and selection process

Interested research institutions must submit their legally binding signed application for funding, including a project description, by August 9, 2026 to the responsible project sponsor.

The submitted projects are evaluated on the basis of scientific quality, innovation potential, data availability, interdisciplinarity, feasibility, and exploitation perspective.