The German Postgraduate Training for Applied Epidemiology (PAE) is a two-year advanced level FETP that has been based at the Robert Koch Institute since 1996. PAE is associated with the European Program for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET). It aims to train scientists in the field of infectious disease epidemiology and places a particular focus on applying epidemiological methods for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in the German public health service. At least five applicants are accepted each year. Applicants should be motivated to work on projects with public health relevance and should aspire to a career in the public health sector in Germany or abroad. A central feature of the PAE is the "learning by service" approach, meaning that only about ten percent of the training consists of traditional academic forms of education (lectures, seminars, and case studies); the emphasis lies on the independent use of the acquired techniques under close expert supervision at the training site by working in research and surveillance projects, as well as participating in outbreak investigations.

The PAE offers two types of training sites for their participants: either a unit within the Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Robert Koch Institute (units 32-38), or a public health authority of one of the federal states.