University Progressing Towards a Future Faculty Campus

Press Release No. 118/2024
22 October 2024

The two new buildings are set to be used primarily for research by the preclinical and theoretical departments of the Medical Faculty Mannheim and are being built on a triangular site between Röntgenstrasse to the west, the cemetery to the south, and the Mannheim Medical Technology Campus to the east. This project is planned as the new MaReCuM teaching and research campus of the Medical Faculty Mannheim, with new buildings grouped around the historic boiler house of the University Hospital Mannheim. The goal is to achieve a holistic urban development for this new area of the faculty and to concentrate spaces that have previously largely been rented on a separate campus for the first time. 

Currently, two basement levels are being constructed in the already excavated construction pit, forming a common base for the two new buildings, which will house, among other things, the technical center and the central infrastructure for “Preclinical Models”. Two five-story new buildings will be built on top of this. The first building is planned as a general research building and will include molecular biology laboratory spaces and evaluation stations alongside office zones with meeting rooms. The second building for the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Control (CCDC) will be built as a research facility financed by the federal and state governments. As a research institution of Heidelberg University, the CCDC is assigned to the Medical Faculty Mannheim. A total of around 12,000 square meters of usable space are being built here, with construction costs amounting to approximately 174 million euros.

The general research building will also house a large lecture hall for teaching students. This will be the first time that the 270 students in a cohort can all be taught together. The model study program Mannheim Reformed Curriculum for Medicine and Medical-Related Professions (MaReCuM) of the Medical Faculty Mannheim is one of the most modern medical programs in Germany. Traditional subject boundaries are broken down in both basic and advanced studies, with a focus on broader topics, organs, and diseases. This is reflected in the close integration of preclinical and clinical-theoretical science, basic research, and teaching – which is also the inspiration for the name of the new teaching and research campus. There is also a high-quality outdoor space planned for students as a microcampus, shielded from the main traffic artery of Röntgenstrasse, which separates the campus from the hospital.

The groundbreaking ceremony will be opened by Marco Grübbel, head of the Mannheim and Heidelberg office of the Baden-Württemberg state assets and construction company. The welcome address will be followed by speeches by Gisela Splett, State Secretary in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Finance, and Ministerial Director Dr Hans J. Reiter from the State Ministry of Science. Greetings will be delivered by the Rector of Heidelberg University, Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, and the Mayor of Mannheim, Christian Specht.