Quality management for biomedical research in Germany

Summary Biomedical research is characterized by a tremendous expansion of knowledge in recent years. Alongside, biomedical research is in the focus of public inerest. Hence, highest quality standards are required to meet the expectations of the scientific community and of the public. A panel of instruments of quality management helps to strenghthen productivity of biomedical research, i.e. 1. improved institutionalization of research; 2. productivity-oriented distribution of ressources; 3. evaluations and 4. quality standards for the performance of research. Quality management is a matter of a vivid discussion in Germany and professors and junior faculty members alike are generally open-minded towards quality management activities to improve output-oriented research. Contents of this paper have been given as lecture at the symposium “Quality management in phoniatries and pedaudiology” on the occasion of the 75^th birthday of Prof. G. Kittel at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany (organization: Prof. U. Eysholdt and Asst. Prof. F. Rosanowski).