IMP welcomes new research institute for AI and biomedicine at Vienna BioCenter
The IMP welcomes an exciting addition to the Vienna BioCenter: a new research institute that will apply artificial intelligence to biomedical questions, founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation (BIS).
The Vienna BioCenter—with currently over 135 research groups already Central Europe’s biggest cluster of life science excellence—is surpassing another milestone of its dynamic development: a new research institute will be established to use cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence research to tackle biomedical questions. The “Aithyra Institute” will be supported with 150 million Euro from the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation for the first twelve years of its operations. As an institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Aithyra will be firmly embedded into Austria’s thriving academic scene. It will also join a string of ÖAW success stories which include two research institutes that are already on campus – IMBA and the GMI.
In the frame of a press conference at the ÖAW headquarters today, the Aithyra stakeholders announced that AI researcher Michael Bronstein, currently at the University of Oxford, will serve as the first scientific director. The new institute aims to start operations towards the end of the year, initially from the Marx Box at the heart of the Vienna BioCenter. It will later move into its own building, which will be built on behalf of the City of Vienna.
IMP Scientific Director Jan-Michael Peters is a board member of the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation. In this role, he accompanied the process that culminated in today’s announcement from very early on. He welcomed the news with great enthusiasm: "Artificial Intelligence is at the forefront of discovery in many areas, including of course the life sciences. It is fantastic to see the support of so many stakeholders for the Aithyra Institute to anchor this technology firmly at the Vienna BioCenter. I am sure the collaborative spirit of the campus will be the perfect substrate for the new institute to flourish; and for many joint research endeavours to come."
"The establishment of the Aithyra Institute in Vienna is a great success for this city. It follows decades of hard work of many people and demonstrates what an important scientific hub Vienna has become again," said Jan-Michael Peters. The Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation is a charitable organisation and a legal entity not linked to the company Boehringer Ingelheim, the main sponsor of the IMP.
"The creation of the Aithyra Institute at the Vienna BioCenter is extremely fortunate both for the campus and for the science that is pursued here," said Harald Isemann, IMP Managing Director for Finance and Administration, who is also chairman of the Vienna BioCenter association. "The cross-cutting nature of artificial intelligence places the new institute perfectly to link the three pillars of the campus: research, business, and education. I am excited to welcome the Aithyra Institute to the Vienna BioCenter soon—it will fit in perfectly and I hope it will benefit from the minds and creativity of the 2800 people who already work here."
Further Reading
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/aithyra - Aithyra Institute
https://www.boehringer-ingelheim-stiftung.de/en/ - Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ - Austrian Academy of Sciences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bronstein - On Michael Bronstein