Partner 6 Robert Koch-Institute (RKI)
The Robert Koch-Institute is the federal government’s central institution for public health protection and advice in Germany. The classical work area of the Robert Koch-Institute is public health related research in infectious diseases. Numerous teams, including several national reference centers and advisory laboratories, use modern molecular biological methods to detect and characterize infectious agents and their routes of transmission. Furthermore, on the basis of legal regulations - especially the up to date “Protection against Infections Act”- the incidence of infectious diseases is recorded and evaluated nationwide in the department for infectious disease epidemiology. The department has a wide range of experience in event based surveillance and modern surveillance methods as well as in epidemiological studies (also combining classical epidemiological and molecular methods). Furthermore, the institute is a major organisation in the area of Evidence Based Public Health in Europe. The institute is very experienced in the investigation and control of outbreaks and epidemics and also in the area of imported or new and emerging pathogens. Continuous public health monitoring involves all age groups from 0 to 80 and calls for regular national surveys. The RKI has conducted many extensive health surveys since the 1980’s. In these surveys several thousand participants have not only been questioned but have also undergone detailed examinations. The data are used for health reporting, the development of health related targets and the preparation and review of political decisions relating to health. The Institute cooperates with various institutions in Germany and around the world, including the ECDC and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Robert Koch Institute has its headquarters in Berlin and a branch with modern laboratories in Wernigerode in the Harz region of Germany. Of its ca. 1000 employees, about 250 are scientists. An internal research committee and an external advisory scientific council examine the quality of the work.
Principle Investigator: Guido Werner,
wernerg@rki.de