Image courtesy Institute for Systems Biology
Systems biology is expensive, requiring the development and maintenance of elaborate technology platforms that cannot be financed by a single university or research institution In addition, it relies on the interaction of scientists from multiple disciplines including biology, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and engineering.
To address this Swiss universities and research institutes have agreed to pool their knowledge and resources in a single research consortium, SystemsX.ch. The universities of Basle, Berne, Lausanne, Fribourg, Geneva, and Zurich, the Paul Scherrer Institute, Friedrich Miescher Institute, and the Swiss Institute for Bioinformatics teamed up with the two Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne to support this research initiative.
Commenting on the formation of SystemsX.ch, Secretary of State for Education and Research, Charles Kleiber said, “A cooperation of this magnitude among the universities is of unparalleled character, and on many levels embodies the way projects should be tackled and coordinated among Swiss institutes in the future.”
The Swiss parliament recently allocated CHF200 million for research in systems biology from 2008-2011. Of this CHF 100 million will go to fund half the cost of research projects at the universities and other research institutions that are partners of SystemsX.ch. On top of that, parliament approved a CHF100 million budget for the continued development ETH Zurich’s Department for Biosystems Science and Engineering, located in Basel.
In comparison to this investment, the UK has invested £88 million in systems biology, while in Germany the federal government plans to spend about €37 million per year on the field from 2008 to 2011.
All applications for funding under the SystemsX.ch initiative must be submitted by the end of the year. To date 18 applications have been received. Ralph Eichler, Chairman of the Board of Directors for SystemX.ch and President of ETH Zurich says, “The scope and volume of individual projects should be in the range of CHF 1-5 million per year”. In addition to large “research technology and development” projects, SystemsX.ch will fund about 40 interdisciplinary PhD projects and 40 interdisciplinary pilot projects. These pilots, says the initiative, should help seed interdisciplinary interactions among researchers from various academic backgrounds and institutions by allowing them to collaborate on an exciting and high-risk project for a year.
The Swiss National Science Foundation will oversee the quality of the research and has set up a special panel to evaluate and review all applications. In addition to its six Swiss National Science Council members, this panel will contain international experts from various disciplines crucial to systems biology.
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