OUR MISSION
A clear mission
The SVRI is driven by the common goal of international initiatives promoted at a political, corporate and academic level to reduce or eliminate suffering and death due to infectious diseases and cancer. The SVRI will contribute to this goal through exploration, scientific discovery and translation of the discoveries into effective preventive vaccine strategies and therapeutic vaccine interventions for infectious diseases and for cancer.
The SVRI will encompass major facets of basic, clinical and translational research covering predominantly the three major infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, as well as the emerging influenza pandemic threat. The SVRI will also benefit from ongoing efforts in the area of cancer vaccine research.
Strong political and financial support
The SVRI was inaugurated on December 5th 2007 in Lausanne. Its creation has been supported by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation of the Swiss Confederation (SERI), following an initiative from the four founder institutions: the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV)/University of Lausanne as the leading institution, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzone, and the Ludwig Center for Cancer Research of the UNIL, Lausanne, and is open to other Swiss research institutions.
The activities regarding the HIV vaccine programme that will be developed at the SVRI will be complementary in many respects to those within the Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will be aligned with the scientific strategic plan of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise.
Developing the best for public benefit
The SVRI aims to create new research groups of young scientists ; to develop an immunology laboratory platform for the standardization and development of the most modern technologies for the evaluation of vaccine-induced immune responses with a rapid transfer in clinical monitoring ; to develop a microbiology laboratory platform for the selection of the most promising microbial vector-based candidate vaccines in pre-clinical development; and to create a vaccine research platform with a major focus on discovery and early clinical development (phase I/IIa).
A multidisciplinary and collaborative approach
The SVRI will promote coordination, collaboration and cooperation amongst the fundamental, translational and clinical scientists working in vaccine development in the fields of HIV, malaria, TB, influenza and cancer in Switzerland. It will also aim to create a common multidisciplinary platform in order to bring together the expertise in the research areas critical for vaccine development such as immunology, vectorology, adjuvants and delivery, as well as clinical science. With a view to the future, it will train generations of young scientists in the field of vaccines; partner with the major international private/public organizations involved in vaccine development; foster collaboration with industrial partners; and protect intellectual property generated from the fundamental, translational and clinical programmes.