Andreja Poljak

With more than 200 employees, National Institute of Biology (NIB) is the largest independent Public Research Institution for Life Sciences in Slovenia. The Institute was established by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in 1960. The basic activity of the Institute has been and continues to be basic, developmental and applicative research in the fields of biotechnology, biophysics, biomedicine and system biology. The numerous activities taking place at the NIB are related to the environment, agriculture, food and, more recently and increasingly so, to human health. An important milestone in the history of the Institute was the establishment of the Marine Biological Station Piran (MBSP) on the Adriatic coast in Piran in 1969 and its recent upgrading into a modern research facility in 2006. The focus of MBSP is ecological research, particularly interdisciplinary research concerning coastal seas. Other NIB research programmes take place within the Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research, Department of Genetic Toxicology and Cancer Biology, Department of Biotechnology and Systems Biology focus on topics ranging from viruses, plant and animal species to humans and their environment. NIB works in close cooperation with affiliated higher education and research institutions in Slovenia and abroad. This synergy ensures that the knowledge produced at the Institute is widely accessible to the society through education and outreach activities and is beneficial to the economy by being transferred into practice. At present, NIB is a project-oriented institution financed with grants from the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) and international grants including EU funding schemes (Horizon Europe, Eco Innovation and ERA NET, EU Cohesion/Social Fund, EURAMET, LIFE+, MARE etc.). NIB is simultaneously involved in numerous international collaborations (with Brazil, France, Japan, South Korea, China, Russia and USA) and, increasingly, in long-term contract research for the Centres of Excellence (COBIK, KC-BRIN, CIPKEBIB), pharmaceutical companies (LEK, d.o.o, Hidria, d.o.o) and a number of small and medium-sized enterprises. NIB has established its own technology transfer office (TTO) responsible for the management of intellectual property and business development within a Consortium of Slovenian TTOs.