Mag. Georg Kapsch

President of the Federation of Austrian Industries

Within the last decade, the CeMM became  an institution of essential importance at  the heart of the Austrian R&D community,  attracting more than 150 leading scientists  from over 40 nations. CeMM contributes  substantially to the fight against  inflammatory diseases, immune disorders,  cancer and rare diseases. After 10 years  of excellent work at CeMM, the election of  Prof. Dr. Giulio Superti-Furga as a Member  of the European Research Council in  the beginning of the year reflects  the institution’s outstanding achievements.  The ERC membership offers considerable  opportunities, as the council represents  the most important funding institution  for excellent fundamental research across  the EU – a responsible and challenging duty  especially in times of political instability.  Indeed, R&D financing is vital for the  life‑science  sector both at EU and national  level which has a huge economic impact:  in Austria it comprises over 800 companies,  with more than 52.000 employees and an  overall annual turnover of 19.1 Billion Euro.  Besides funding, the main success factors  for a strong life-science sector are a highly  educated workforce, state of the art  infrastructure and technology transfer.  In this light, CeMM is a crucial institution  at the interface of fundamental research  and practice orientation in a clinical  environment. I hope that CeMM will  continue its great success story: Happy  10th Birthday to CeMM and its scientists!