The Medical University of Graz comprises 16 Research Institutes, 20 Clinical Departments and a purpose-built Center for Medical Research equipped with highly specialized core facilities as well as lab and office space for research projects. The number of employees is about 1700. Approx. 4500 students are enrolled in the study programs (Human Medicine, Dentistry, Doctoral Programs) and post-graduate programs.
Research activities at the Medical University of Graz cover a broad spectrum in clinical and pre-clinical fields. The University has been participating in numerous EU-funded projects (FP5, 6 and 7 as well as Horizon 2020) and acts as coordinator of various large research initiatives. The Medical University of Graz runs one of the largest biobanks in Europe and plays a leading role in the European Union’s endeavour to build up a harmonized biobanking infrastructure across Europe.
The University cooperates with many national and international partners. It strongly supports interdisciplinary cooperation with other universities and liaises actively with academic institutions and the business sector in the region. Its most crucial partner is the Regional & University Hospital Graz with its 1580 beds, 82,000 inpatients and 1.2 million outpatient services per year, which – in close cooperation with the University – provides tertiary care for all other hospitals in the Province of Styria and in the neighbouring provinces. This creates a setting in which researchers have access to patients needing primary care as well as high-end medicine, which is ideal for research into translational and practice-relevant aspects of medicine.
The Department of Neurology (Head: Prof. Franz Fazekas) provides primary, secondary, and tertiary care for a large population of inhabitants in the southern part of Austria. Among a broad range of neurologic disorders, stroke care is a main focus of the Department which is facilitated by an intensive care unit, stroke unit, early rehabilitation unit and large wards. Approximately 1000 stroke patients are treated annually. In addition, the stroke outpatient department sees approximately 1200 patients a year. The Department is also well connected with neighboring neurological departments and rehabilitation centers.
Neuroimaging applications and research for the benefits for the patients is a main asset of the Department. Research activities and especially the participation in controlled clinical trials allow the Department of Neurology to implement novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools prior to their official registration. This is facilitated by close collaborations with the Division of Neuroradiology, Interventional and Vascular Radiology of the Department of Radiology in the form of dual appointments of neurologists in both the Departments of Neurology and Radiology. Among five Research Units, there also exists a Research Unit on “Neuroimaging” (Head: Prof. Stefan Ropele) with dedicated MR physicists to develop and implement new MR sequences and a Research Unit on “Neuronal plasticity and repair” (Head: Prof. Christian Enzinger) which uses morphologic and functional MRI as main investigational tools.
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