The CMMC Central Office (CCO) plays a central organizational and managerial role within the CMMC by taking care of the structural, scientific and administrative needs of the Center. The CCO is essential for the successful day-to-day operation and management of the CMMC, organizing, coordinating, handling, advising, initiating and managing the complex internal and external affairs of the CMMC.

The CCO acts as an interface between all research groups supported by the funding programs of the CMMC, the heads of the central core units and other in-house service facilities and the different CMMC Boards and Committees, and supports the researchers with e.g. administrative issues.

The CCO reports to the CMMC chair and the CMMC Executive Board and implements the decisions. The CCO also actively pursues the scientific and structural aims of the Center and coordinates and manages all necessary actions and activities to ensure that these aims are successfully met within the given time frame.

In addition, the CCO cooperates and deals with essential administrative matters for the Medical Faculty and Science Faculties, the Cologne University Hospital, the University of Cologne as well as with external partners such as non-university institutions and public authorities and also handles all requests to and from the Federal and State Ministries.

Finally, the CMMC is highly proactive in promoting high-level education, as evidenced by its comprehensive structured PhD program – the Interdisciplinary Program in Molecular Medicine (IPMM) and its interaction with the graduate program “Inflammatory Pathways underlying Vascular Remodeling” of the Cologne Cardiovascular Research Center (CCRC), the graduate schools and programs of the Faculty of Medicine and the Science Faculty. Furthermore, the CCO supports the educational activities of the Faculty of Medicine which aims to attract medical students to biomedical research.

Since the opening of the CMMC Research Building in 2009, the CMMC Office ensures that the needs and requirements of the research groups are fully met.
One main task of the CCO is the flexible management of the requirements of the research projects, core units and in-house facilities as well as the administration of the CMMC Research Building. The CCO initiates and carries out numerous long-term planning projects - the most important activities are listed below:

• Coordination and management of the CMMC
• Providing an interface to connect and support individual CMMC research groups, core units and in-house facilities
• Providing administrative and organizational support for the CMMC Research Groups, new groups and in-house facilities
• Support of the Executive Board, the External Scientific Advisory Board and the Board of Trustees as well as the Board of Principal Investigators
• Communication, preparation and organization of the new funding period of the CMMC
• Organization of Plenary Meetings, the annual CMMC Annual Retreat, the seminar series of the Center, international scientific meetings (e.g. Ernst Klenk Symposia) and additional scientific activities
• Promotion and support of young researchers and career support
• Gender and family support
• Communication, organization and support in the allocation of third party funding (e.g. Großgeräteanträge)
• Financial project management
• Management and administration of the CMMC Research Building
• IT support
• Public relations and marketing
• Providing public educational outreach to further improve the understanding of biomedical research and its impact on health.

The members of the CMMC Central Office are enthusiastically committed to the interests of the CMMC providing a flexible target-oriented administrative approach to further promote the CMMC´s achievements.