Award for outstanding commitment: Rudolf Hauke receives the DKFZ Patient Expert Award 2025

At this year's annual reception, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is awarding the Patient Expert Award 2025 to Rudolf Hauke. With this award, the DKFZ honors his many years of pioneering commitment to the structured involvement of patients in cancer research.

Towards a new partnership between research and patients

Rudolf Hauke is a pioneer of a new culture of cooperation in medical research. As a founding member and long-standing spokesperson for the Patient Advisory Board at the DKFZ, he has made a decisive contribution to permanently integrating the perspective of those affected into scientific processes.

Under his leadership, the DKFZ established the first Patient Advisory Board for Cancer Research in Germany – a model that now serves as a nationwide benchmark. Hauke laid the foundations for credible and effective patient participation, thereby doing pioneering work for the entire field of cancer research.

From patient to partner: a powerful voice in patient involvement

“Rudolf Hauke has guided the development and work of the advisory board with great commitment, in a sustainable, professionally sound, strategically well-thought-out manner and always in the interests of those affected,” says Michael Baumann, Chairman of the DKFZ Executive Board. “His many years of experience as a cancer patient, marked by several relapses and various innovative therapies, motivate him to this day to enrich scientific processes with the perspective of those affected and to help shape them.”

Rudolf Hauke was also an influential voice at the national level: He contributed his expertise to strategic development processes at an early stage as part of the “National Decade Against Cancer” initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As former deputy spokesperson for the Patient Advisory Board at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), he accompanied key stages of patient-oriented research from the strategy phase to the establishment of the expanded NCT.

In addition to his commitment to oncological research, Hauke volunteered for many years on the board of the Association for Children with Cancer in Hanover. In 2024, he was awarded the Vision Zero Innovation Prize in the patient participation category for his extraordinary work.

With the DKFZ Patient Expert Award 2025, presented for the second time this year, Rudolf Hauke is now being honored for his outstanding, continuous, and strategic commitment, which has brought about lasting change in cancer research in Germany. His work shows how important the voice of patients is for excellent research and better care.

A photo is available for download here.

Caption: The Scientific Director and Chairman of the Board, Michael Baumann (left) and the Chief Commercial Officer of the German Cancer Research Center, Ursula Weyrich, jointly presented the DKFZ Patient Expert Award 2025 to Rudolf Hauke.

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