Strong strategic partnerships with international research institutions.
The Institute will establish strategic partnerships with internationally renowned public and private research institutions and work with philanthropic organisations that support its mission in the Global South. Inaugural strategic academic partnerships are planned with ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and the University of Oxford, UK, with additional global partners to be announced in the future.
The BIIE will move into a new purpose-built research facility in 2027. In the interim, the BIIE is hosted by the Department of Biosystems Science and Systems Engineering (D-BSSE) of ETH Zurich, a newly opened state of the art facility in Basel. The D-BSSE operates at the intersection of systems biology, bioengineering and computational biology. Prof. Christian Wolfrum, ETH Zurich VP of Research notes, “The envisaged close collaborations with the immune engineering institute in Basel will further accelerate the development of medical solutions, and complement the goals of ETH Zurich. The planned hosting of the inaugural class of BIIE scientists in our new building in Basel is an ideal opportunity to develop a lasting partnership through joint professorships, student training programs, and shared infrastructure.”
In its first international partnership, the BIIE intends to work with the University of Oxford to create the Basel-Oxford Centre of Immune Engineering, plans include professorships and student training programs as well as access to the extensive global clinical research capabilities of Oxford University. Prof. Sir Andrew Pollard, Fellow of the Royal Society and Director of Oxford’s Vaccine Group stated, “Looking no further than recent events, one can see that immune engineering is a catalyst in the rapid development of globally accessible therapeutics, in particular, vaccines. Through this partnership with BIIE, Oxford researchers will benefit from vibrant collaborations that advance basic and clinical research specific to children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries. BIIE’s strengths in biocomputation and immune engineering mean this partnership will further accelerate discovery as well as the creation of safe and effective medicines for children around the world.”
