25 August 2026: First Online Consortium Meeting
Research needs trust: data, law and collaboration in GenDiMedNet
How can scientific collaboration, open research processes and the responsible handling of data be combined in a legally sound way? GenDiMedNet addresses this question in a joint exchange between the project management agency, data research, legal scholarship and the research projects.
At the heart of it is a simple but decisive insight: Good research does not arise from good data alone. It also needs clear rules, reliable structures and a shared understanding of how knowledge can be shared, protected and developed further.
Researching together – taking responsibility together
The opening is given by Dr. Bettina Schmietow with current information from the project management agency. The focus is on the collaboration of M1, M2 and M3 with the advisory board members, questions of disclosing project data, and the possibility of using funding specifically for legal advice.
This makes visible a topic that is becoming increasingly important for a large interdisciplinary research consortium: transparency and protection are not opposites. Rather, structures are needed that enable both – scientific openness where it is sensible and desired, and responsible protection of sensitive data, ideas and rights where it is required.
Data connects perspectives
The focus then turns to data research, giving insights into the work of the data team and showing how different scientific perspectives can be brought together.
Experts from Charité Berlin, the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité and University Medicine Greifswald are involved.
This is not just about technical standards. Data only becomes truly compatible when its origin, meaning, quality and context are also traceable. In gender-sensitive research in particular, this perspective is crucial: Which data is collected? How are sex and gender represented? Which categories and terms are used? And how can results become usable beyond individual projects?
The data team therefore sees itself as an interface between the projects, with the aim of jointly developing solutions that strengthen scientific quality, traceability and long-term usability.
Law as an enabling structure
Two keynote talks from the circle of GenDiMedNet advisory board members show that interdisciplinary research can also be legally complex.
Prof. Dr. iur. Alexandra Jorzig presents her support and the assistance she offers, and sheds light on the legal requirements of interdisciplinary research collaboration.
Very concrete questions from the projects are also in focus, including on declarations of consent within the large funding consortium, for example for presentations, publications or the use of images and image rights.
Subsequently, lawyer Miriam Stüldt-Borsetzky shows how legal support can be integrated very practically into research work. Using gEndurance as an example, she covers collaboration with M2 and M3 as well as questions around NDAs, intellectual property and protective rights within consortia.
Law is thus understood not as a downstream control body but as part of a responsible research architecture: clarify early what is possible, so that good ideas can be shared safely, developed further and brought into application.
Dialogue instead of a one-way street
The event concludes with a joint Q&A session. Questions are collected in the chat during the event and taken up together; topics that require in-depth examination can be answered separately afterwards.
This open exchange is central: many questions only arise where different disciplines, projects and perspectives meet.
GenDiMedNet creates a space in which data research, law and scientific practice enter into conversation with one another.
The future of gender-sensitive research needs more than new findings. It needs shared standards, legal certainty, responsible handling of knowledge and a network that develops shared solutions from different perspectives.
Research connects. Trust makes collaboration possible. And good structures ensure that individual projects can become lasting knowledge for many.