DRESDEN-concept grows to
40 partner institutions

With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) with its center in Heidelberg is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully.

In summer of 2019, the DKFZ founded Germany’s first DKFZ external site in Dresden. In Dresden, the DKFZ, together with the TUD Dresden University of Technology and its University Medicine Department, also maintains sites of the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK). The DKFZ site Dresden is to be established to develop innovative technology-based approaches for tumor diagnostics and therapy as well as a contact point for prevention. With its high-tech profile, Dresden offers an excellent environment for this.

The University of Applied Sciences for Social Work, Education and Nursing (ehs) is a research-strong and internationally networked university of applied sciences with currently around 900 students. The university of applied sciences teaches and conducts research in the fields of social work, nursing, childhood education, Protestant religious and community education, social management and counseling. The ehs was founded in 1991, is state-recognized and is funded by the Free State of Saxony and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony. ehs is open to all students regardless of religious affiliation or faith.

The ehs sees itself as a research university: research activities are initiated, supported and realized in close cooperation with practice partners. Research projects are carried out at the university of applied sciences and at the Center for Research, Continuing Education and Consulting at ehs. Further education and training courses as well as scientific specialist days are further components of the ehs educational offer, which are realized by the Social Science Training Institute (sofi). sofi offers a place of learning for specialists from a wide range of social professions and those interested in scientific issues with practical and in-service training and further education opportunities.

HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts was founded as festival house and academy for musical and rhythmic education according to the visions of Heinrich Tessenow, trailblazer of modern architecture, and music educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in 1911. As the first cultural center in Germany’s first garden city, the legendary edifice drew artists from all over Europe to Hellerau, among them Rilke, Kafka, Djagilew, Van de Velde, Kokoschka, Gropius, Van der Rohe, Werfel, Busoni, Milhaud, Le Corbusier, Nolde, and Stefan Zweig until 1914. The 1990s saw the houses revival through art.

Today, HELLERAU acts as an interdisciplinary and international center for dance, performance, music, theatre, media art and visual arts. HELLERAU offers spaces for productions, festivals, concerts performances, exhibitions and discourse, cooperates with various regional cultural partners and is firmly connected internationally. The residency apartments are as unique as opportunities for artistic research, production and encounters. Dresden, with its geography at the borders of Poland and the Czech Republic as well as by its history within Germany, occupies an important East-Western hub. Therefore, one important programmatic aspect deals with the role taken by the arts in trans- formational social processes in Eastern Bloc States after 1989. Other topics deal with neighbourhoods, generations, heritage and remembrance as well as with digital transformation and ecological sustainability. Carena Schlewitt has been artistic director since the season 2018/19.