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Climate change presents hospitals with a dual challenge: they must prepare for its growing health impacts while reducing their own environmental footprint. Led by the University of Bayreuth, the new KlimaRadar Krankenhaus (KliR-K) project will develop and test a practical tool to help hospitals assess their progress in climate adaptation and mitigation and identify priorities for improvement. The project has been awarded approximately €1.6 million through the Innovation Fund administered by the Innovation Committee at Germany’s Federal Joint Committee (G-BA).

Hospitals must respond to heat-related illnesses, extreme weather events and changing infectious disease risks while ensuring that their services remain operational under climate stress. At the same time, they need to reduce emissions and resource consumption. Although numerous initiatives address individual aspects of these challenges, Germany lacks a common, scientifically grounded framework for assessing hospitals’ progress across both climate adaptation and mitigation.

KliR-K will address this gap by developing a maturity model that assesses hospitals’ existing structures and practices, defines stages of development and links these to practical recommendations. The resulting KlimaRadar will help hospitals identify where they stand and what steps they can take next. It will also provide evidence to inform investment, management and health policy decisions.

The project brings together the University of Bayreuth, the Institute for Applied Health Services Research (inav), the German Hospital Institute (DKI), and the Centre for Climate-Resilient Medicine and Healthcare Facilities (KliMeG) of the German Alliance on Climate Change and Health (KLUG). Professor Wilm Quentin, Chair of Planetary and Public Health at the University of Bayreuth, leads the consortium.

The Bayreuth team will build the evidence base for climate adaptation in hospitals and develop recommendations for embedding adaptation measures in routine organisational practice. Its research will also examine resource requirements and costs, and explore associations between hospitals’ maturity levels, organisational characteristics and selected indicators relating to care and staff.

Drawing on national and international evidence, the partners will develop the KlimaRadar jointly with experts and hospital practitioners. The tool will initially be piloted in three to five hospitals, then refined and tested in a further phase involving 10 to 15 hospitals of different sizes, ownership types and levels of care. The research will assess its usability, reliability and practical relevance, alongside options for its sustained use beyond the project.

KliR-K will begin in January 2027 and run for 36 months. 

For more information about the project (in German), click here.