University sponsorship is in vogue - but also meets with criticism
The University of Basel, in particular, is increasingly relying on companies and private individuals to sponsor its chairs. The university is convinced that this is the only way to maintain the level of research. Critics find this problematic.
Vifor Pharma sponsors the University of Basel - but the company is not quite as dominant as in the montage (Photo: University of Basel, Montage: Werbewoche).
How the NZZ on Sunday Andrea Schenker-Wicki, Rector of the University of Basel, signed a contract worth 10 million Swiss francs with the company Vifor Pharma last week. Two professorships are to work on the approval of nanopharmaceuticals for ten years. Vifor is a pioneer in this promising pharmaceutical field, but the approval procedures are causing problems due to the lack of clear criteria. The University of Basel is now to develop the basis for approval and make it available to authorities worldwide,
A lucrative business for Vifor: the million spent per year corresponds to just 0.5 percent of the company's annual research expenditure.
How the NZZ on Sunday writes, more and more companies are getting a taste for university sponsorship. The University of Basel now receives 45 million francs a year from companies and foundations - ten years ago it was 29 million. The University of Zurich receives CHF 122 million and the University of Bern CHF 30 million per year. At ETH Zurich, 26 of the 500 professorships are externally financed.
If Rector Schenker-Wicki has her way, this is just the beginning. She wants to further expand private funding for professorships. She says that this is the only way to develop in the future and maintain the high level of research. Novartis, for example, recently contributed 100 million Swiss francs to the newly opened Institute of Ophthalmology.
This increasing dependence has also been met with criticism. Markus Müller, professor of constitutional law at the University of Bern, is of the opinion that a shortage of money does not justify the acceptance of funds that jeopardize the independence and credibility of a university. Furthermore, a university does not have to grow at any price: "They are not private companies, just a reminder." His demand: companies should leave the money to the universities without demands regarding research topics and design. If companies give money where they themselves have economic exploitation interests, this is "problematic" and detrimental to the credibility of universities.
So the University of Basel is not getting good marks from Bern. In 2016, the Interpharma association not only paid for the Chair of Health Economics, but also helped decide who was appointed as a professor. Rector Schenker-Wicki replies that lessons have been learned from this. Vifor has no say in the professorships, nor in the research and exploitation of the results. We are not "servants of the pharmaceutical industry", she emphasizes.
