The International Research Training Group GRK 1673 / BRIDGE was a study program for doctoral candidates both in Berlin/Germany and Hyderabad/India. It was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (German Research Foundation) from October 2010 to March 2015. A final year of funding for PhD student stipends was granted until March 2016.

In Berlin, Prof. Dr. Lothar H. Wieler, Freie Universität Berlin (today Robert Koch Institute) was speaker of the program. Prof. Dr. Niyaz Ahmed, University of Hyderabad, was his counterpart in Hyderabad.

GRK 1673 was the first structured research program focusing on the newly emerging area of Functional Molecular Infection Epidemiology. During the funding phase, a lively and fruitful exchange between Hyderabad and Berlin was established, an achievement that will be maintained even after the end of the program. Two cohorts of PhD students spend time both in Germany and India, thus benefitting from scientific and intercultural experience. Also many senior scientists from both countries participated in the exchange, expanded their networks and established new collaborations.