Berlin-Brandenburg displays the highest density of universities, research facilities and clinics in Germany. This is also reflected in the level of external funding acquired by natural science and medical departments, where Berlin again ranks far above the German average. The German capital is also the number one as regards the award of funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The volume of DFG funding acquired is regarded as one of the toughest quality criteria of research activities. With 325 million euros, Berlin (with the HU, FU and TU) comes first, followed by Munich with 261 million.

Berlin is also significantly above the average for German universities as regards the acquisition of external funding for research in medicine and medical technology. In 2006, Charité with its total of four campuses reported an inflow of 107 million in third-party funds.

In the 2007 rankings of the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE), Charité came out far ahead of the other German institutions: Charité filed 271 inventions for patent since 2002 and received some five million euros in license fees from 70 patents in the fields of immunology, molecular biology and implantology, of which two thirds will be reinvested in research and technology transfer.

Medical technology research facilities with a strong reputation far beyond Berlin include:

• In first position: Charité Universitätsmedizin. Under the reorganization of Berlin’s medical faculties in 2003, Benjamin Franklin University Clinic und the Charité, founded in 1710, were combined to form "Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin" as a joint faculty of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. It is now one of Europe’s largest university hospitals with a total of 128 Charité clinics and institutes in 17 Charité Centers (CC) and provides more than 125,000 in- and  some 500,000 out-patient treatments every year;
• Max-Delbrueck-Centrum for Molecular Medicine;
• Technical University Berlin with its Center for Innovative Health Technologies (ZiG), the Institute for Micro- and Medical Technology and several departments involved in medical technology research;
• Laser- und Medizin-Technologie GmbH Berlin;
• Deutsches Rheumaforschungszentrum;
• Physikalisch-Technische-Bundesanstalt (PTB); and the
• Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM).

Based on its longstanding tradition in medicine and science and its high concentration of hospitals and applied clinical research, Berlin possesses an immensely productive healthcare provision network. The performance provided by the city’s hospitals is outstanding by both national and international standards:

• The German Heart Institute Berlin (DHZB) was founded in 1986 and is one of the world’s best and most acclaimed transplantation centers.
• Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (ukb), founded in 1997, is Germany’s first fully digitalized hospital.
• One of the world’s first laser clinics operates at Elisabeth Klinik. According to the German Association for Laser Medicine, it provides the broadest range of treatments available in Germany.
• In 1997, Germany’s first specialized hospital for minimally invasive surgery started operations at Evangelisches Krankenhaus Hubertus.
• The first center for medical gender research in Germany was opened at Charité in late 2004.
• Health Care Management has been established as a discipline at TU Berlin since 2005 as one of the 32 "Collaborating Centers for Health Systems Research and Management" of the World Health Organization (WHO), of which a total of eight are located in Europe.
• One of Germany’s five official aeromedical centers is located at the Vivantes Klinikum in Friedrichshain.