Life sciences boost for Basel

The new department will specialise in bioengineering Keystone

Plans to create a new Life Sciences Institute in Basel - a unit of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich - are gathering momentum.

The cantons of Basel City and Basel Country have offered to kick-start the project to the tune of SFr20 million ($14 million).

The Federal Institute has welcomed the scheme but made its support conditional on its own budget being increased over the next four years.

“This is a project that Switzerland needs,” Ulrich Suter, vice president for research told swissinfo.

“It would put biology in Switzerland on a new level. It would give us the chance to do something unique in Switzerland and maybe compete for first place worldwide.”

The pharmaceutical industry, concentrated in the city, has also expressed an interest.

Months of negotiations lie ahead to bring Basel’s ambitions into line with financial reality.

Start up

Investment costs for the new unit have been set at SFr80 million, although these could be significantly higher if new buildings are needed. Running costs from 2008 are expected to be about SFr40 million a year.

The cantons’ contribution, which their parliaments are expected to approve this autumn, is earmarked for the start-up phase from 2004 to 2007.

“The project has extraordinary implications for the region,” said Basel Country’s education minister, Urs Wüthrich. “It would be the first institute of its kind in Europe.”

Wüthrich said it would build on Basel’s strengths as a biotech hub and galvanise the region – already the second strongest economically in Switzerland.

He said the hope was that the new centre would prove to be a world leader in its field over the next 20 years.

Financial hurdle

Basel’s grandiose vision faces a major stumbling block in the form of funding.

Basel University, which is facing a cash crisis of its own, is in no position to help financially.

According to the current thinking, the Zurich Institute would meet a significant part of the annual budget of SFr40 million from 2008.

However, Zurich, which is already facing cuts this year, says it cannot commit to any new project without an increase in its own resources.

“We are struggling with our budget like any university,” said Suter. “We cut 13 professorships from our roll last year. We would have to cut another ten to 20 if we took on this additional load.”

He said the Federal Institute could not take on this responsibility without an injection of government funding and the participation of industry.

“We see this as a national project and we feel that there needs to be a national contribution to it.”

Last year, the Zurich Institute received SFr964 million in federal funding and an additional SFr140 million from other sources.

A budget increase seems unlikely for the foreseeable future with the government looking for ways to slash SFr3.4 billion ($2.53 billion) in spending.

Meanwhile, local industry – particularly the pharmaceutical companies and many small spin-offs – have signalled a willingness to help.

New approach

The new unit is expected to specialise in bioengineering, combining the disciplines of biology, nanotechnology and informatics.

“It’s about understanding biology from the molecular level to medical application,” said Suter. “It’s a very broad, very integral approach that brings physics and engineering and chemistry to bear on biological problems.”

Representatives from local and central government, Basel University and the Zurich Institute began discussing the project last December.

The exact location of the new institute has yet to be decided.

swissinfo, Vincent Landon

Key facts

The new unit would specialise in bioengineering and draw on Basel’s traditional strengths in biotech.
It still needs to be decided who will pay for the new centre – central government, industry or the Federal Institute of Technology.
SFr80 million is needed for the investment phase with running costs of SFr40 million a year after 2008.