RMU Awards
Presented in the RMU profile areas
Since 2025, the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) have been presenting RMU Awards in two of the four profile areas in which the RMU pools its research. The four profile areas are Society, Health, Data, and Matter.
In 2025, the following two RMU Awards were presented for the first time: the RMU Award in the profile area Health for “Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies” of Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines and the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Award in the profile area Society for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Winners of the RMU Awards 2026
RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies, sponsored by Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines
The RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies, sponsored by Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines, recognizes Dr. Tamer Butto, junior professor at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz since July 2026, for his innovative research idea aimed at improving the diagnosis of rare genetic disorders. The novel approach combines cutting-edge RNA sequencing with the aim of gaining a better understanding of individual disease mechanisms and, in the longer term, opening up new avenues for targeted therapies. His research thus strengthens the RMU Area of Potential Emerging Targets and Transformative Therapies.
Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Award
This year’s Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Award recognizes Prof. Dr. C. Katharina Spieß of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz for her outstanding body of scholarly work in education, family, and population research. Her research has not only had a lasting impact on these fields and helped create important foundations for future research, but has also been particularly successful in bringing scientific evidence into policy and society. With her research, she contributes to the RMU Research Focal Area Challenging Societal Orders.
As director of the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), Spieß also plays an important role in the regional research network and strengthens collaboration within it.
Background: The RMU Research Profile
The RMU research profile is based on the recognized, complementary strengths within RMU. We classify our internationally leading fields as Research Focal Areas and high-potential topics as Areas of Potential. We map both of these onto the four cross-cutting domains of Data,Health, Matter, and Society.
The RMU Awards are presented in the Profile Areas of Health and Society.
HEALTH
The research domain Health encompasses research groups from life sciences and medicine and their cooperation partners at NURIs. There are two Research Focal Areas Dynamics of Cell Structure and Function and Inter- and Multi-Organ Communication as well as one Area of Potential Emerging Targets and Transformative Therapies. In the profile domain Health excellency is reinforced by two Cluster of Excellence: SCALE and CPI (Cardio-Pulmonary Institute).
The Area of Potential Emerging Targets and Transformative Therapies focuses on drug discovery and biotechnology with the goal of developing novel therapeutic strategies for diseases where there is a high unmet medical need. Research spans new modalities such as proximity-inducing drugs, multispecific biotherapeutics, tailored microbiota- and RNA-based approaches, as well as tailored small molecules, all directed at targets previously considered undruggable.
SOCIETY
The Profile Area Society comprises research groups in the humanities and social sciences. It includes one Research Focal Area Challenging Societal Orders and two Areas of Potential Doing Cultures: Historic and Linguistic Perspectives and Finance and Markets.
The area Challenging Societal Orders comprises several high-level collaborative research units and ERC projects, addressing some of the most pressing social and political challenges of our time such as diversity in societies, increasing economic pressures, accelerated social and geographical mobility as well as immigration, widening social inequality, growing employment insecurity, declining family stability, secularization paired with religious tensions, and demographic shifts marked by falling birth rates and aging populations.
The foundations
Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines
The Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines promotes research projects with the aim of assuring, developing and optimizing the quality of medicinal products and their therapeutic use. The focus is on the development of advanced processes, innovative technologies and modern standardization approaches. The Foundation also honors outstanding scientific achievements and initiatives in this field through prizes and awards – both at its own initiative and in cooperation with professional associations.
Starting in 2025, the Foundation presents the RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies to outstanding early career researchers. The award honors creative, pioneering research ideas with high scientific and therapeutic potential and is endowed with 10,000 euros.
Sibylle-Kalkhof-Rose Foundation
The Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose Foundation promotes research and teaching at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU), in particular early career researchers. There are two funding lines: The University Award is presented each year to young researchers in the categories humanities and social Sciences, natural sciences and medicine. In addition, the Foundation supports outstanding, sustainable and significant projects and acquisitions at the JGU that cannot be funded from regular means.
In 2025 and 2026, the Foundation honored outstanding, personal and scientific achievements at the Rhine-Main Universities with the RMU Award. It is endowed with 10,000 euros to be used at the awardee’s discretion.
Winners of the RMU Awards 2025
RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies of Frankfurt Foundation Quality of Medicines
Dr. Cristian Prieto-Garcia is a researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt, where he focuses on cellular maturation of RNA molecules. He discovered that it is possible to deliberately create errors in RNA maturation, thereby eliminating cancer cells. This finding, published in specialist journal Science, opens up new ways for cancer therapies. With innovative approaches to drug development, more than 20 professional publications and strong partners, he stands for excellent, practice-oriented research.
Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Award for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Prof. Dr. Christian Wiese, holder of the Martin-Buber-Chair at Goethe University, is honored for his outstanding research on Jewish intellectual and cultural history and his extraordinary engagement in science, education and society. With his innovative projects on research on religion and antisemitism, international networking and the promotion of young researchers, he has made a significant impact in his field far beyond Germany.
Call for applications
There are currently no calls for applications for the RMU Award for Pharmaceutical Research & Innovative Medical Therapies or the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose RMU Award for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
New calls for applications will be published here at a later date.
