The Helmholtz Space Life Sciences Research School (SpaceLife) is funded by the Helmholtz Association (Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft) for a period of six years (beginning in April 2009) and receives additional funds from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). Using the Helmholtz funds, the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine (DLR-Institut für Luft- und Raumfahrtmedizin) in Cologne, in collaboration with the universities of Aachen, Bonn, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Hohenheim, Kiel, Magdeburg, Regensburg, the Free University Berlin, the Beihang University in Beijing and the German Sport University Cologne, established the first Helmholtz Research School at DLR: an intensive training programme for early-stage researchers from Germany and from abroad.