on April 21, 2010
The Ticino state parliament, the Gran Consiglio, overwhelminingly approved the affiliation of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine to the Università della Svizzera Italiana with a 65 to 1 majority last evening. The vote marks the conclusion of process that began two years ago with the signing by the IRB and the USI a memorandum of understanding which outlined the mutual benefits of an affilition. This memorandum was led to concrete action on the part of the Ticino government to propose a message defining the conditions of the affiliation to the parliament.
After a positive review by the parliamentary scolastic commission, and unanimous praise on the parliament floor the vote on this message formalizes the affiliation with the USI.
As an affiliated institute of the USI, the IRB will benefit from a more stable system of public funding based on the contract between the Canton and the USI and not, as previously, on art.16 of the law on research which was based on requests to the Canton and the Confederation every 4 years. The IRB will be represented within the Swiss academic system by the USI. The IRB will maintain full academic autonomy as an independant research institute. For the USI and for the Canton, the affiliation of the IRB opens a new frontier in research and education.
The affiliation comes on the 10th anniversary of since the founding of the Institute, the 10th anniversary since the receognition by the Confederation as a “University State” and the 10th anniversary since the first degrees were delivered by the USI.
