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    National Biological Defense Program

    1. State the objectives and funding of each programme and summarize the principal research and development activities conducted in the programme. Areas to be addressed shall include: prophylaxis, studies on pathogenicity and virulence, diagnostic techniques, aerobiology, detection, treatment, toxinology, physical protection, decontamination and other related research.

    The objective is to establish national biological defense proficiency by developing and improving precise and accurate tests for the rapid diagnosis as well as for identification and characterzation, of different biological agents and toxins using various methods. Spiez Laboratory is assigned to fulfill this task and to close any gaps to reach national biological defense excellence. To improve the national biological defense capabilities of Switzerland, Spiez Laboratory has funds available to run a dedicated program with the goal of added research and development mainly benefitting detection, diagnostic and identification techniques. Part of the program is conducted under contract with national and international industries, academic institutions as well as domestic and foreign governmental agencies, as detailed in paragraph 5.

    Spiez Laboratory is part of the Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP within the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports DDPS of the Swiss Confederation. Spiez Laboratory is the Swiss center of expertise in protection against nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) threats and hazards. Besides delivering its expertise to relevant stakeholders, the Biology Division of Spiez Laboratory is concerned with the identification of biological agents and toxins, as well as supports military biological protection units. The Biology Division has expertise in the fields of virology, bacteriology and toxinology, as well as biosafety and biosecurity.

    Spiez Laboratory possesses a high containment facility that allows for the safe handling of biological agents of all risk groups. It is the only BSL4 high containment facility in Switzerland holding a license which is not limited to diagnostic purposes. It serves towards the comprehensive detection and identification of human pathogens. This enables Spiez Laboratory to act in the Regional Laboratory Network as both a Regional Competence Center and as a National Reference Center / National Reference Laboratory having all necessary capabilities and capacities at hand.

    For additional information and more on the vision of a world without weapons of mass destruction please visit:
    https://www.spiezlab.admin.ch/en/home.html

    2. State the total funding for each programme and its source.
    Funding source

    Swiss Confederation, Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports DDPS, Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP.

    Total Funding Amount: 
    5'000'000 p.a.
    Funding Currency: 
    CHF
    3. Are aspects of these programmes conducted under contract with industry, academic institutions, or in other non-defence facilities?
    yes
    4. If yes, what proportion of the total funds for each programme is expended in these contracted or other facilities?

    10 %

    5. Summarize the objectives and research areas of each programme performed by contractors and in other facilities with the funds identified under paragraph 4.

    All contracted research and development of the program is supervised by Spiez Laboratory. Please also refer to paragraph 1 above for additional details. The contractors part of the program in 2021 were as follows:

    • Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich – ETHZ
      Functional Genomics Center Zurich – FGCZ
      Winterthurerstrasse 190
      CH-8057 Zürich
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Next Generation Sequencing“
       
    • Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich – ETHZ
      Center for Security Studies – CSS
      Haldeneggsteig 4, IFW
      CH-8092 Zürich
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Analysis of trends in science and policy“
       
    • Robert Koch-Institut – RKI
      Zentrum für Biologische Toxine – ZBS3
      Nordufer 20
      DE-13353 Berlin
      Germany
      Project title: „Development of highly sensitive and specific immunological detection of Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxins C, D, E, G, H and I“
       
    • Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana – SUPSI
      Istituto Microbiologia
      Via Mirasole 22a
      CH-6500 Bellinzona
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Vector Surveillance”
      Project title: „Development of mass spectrometric sequencing procedures to identify biotoxins“
      Project title: „Establishment of a CRISPR-Cas System for agile diagnostics and antiviral testing”
       
    • Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute – SwissTPH
      Socinstrasse 57
      CH-4051 Basel
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Next Generation Sequencing”
       
    • Universität Bern – UniBE
      Interfaculty Bioinformatics Unit – IBU
      Baltzerstrasse 6
      CH-3012 Bern
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Functional Characterisation of Francisella tularensis holarctica with a proteogenomic approach“
       
    • Université de Lausanne / Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois – Unil / CHUV
      Institut de microbiologie – IMUL
      Rue du Bugnon 48
      CH-1011 Lausanne
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Novel therapeutic strategies against highly pathogenic viruses”
      Project title: „Identification and evaluation of antiviral substances against Hantavirus infections”
      Project title: „Pseudovirion Testing”
      Project title: „Assessment of tenacity of highly pathogenic viruses, antivirals and inactivation strategies as well as evaluation of clinical samples”
       
    • Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften – ZHAW
      Einsiedlerstrasse 31
      CH-8820 Wädenswil
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Activity testing of potentially antiviral substances against highly pathogenic viruses“
       
    • Universität Bern – UniBE
      Department for Biomedical Research
      Sahli-Haus 2
      CH-3010 Bern
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Assessment of tenacity of highly pathogenic viruses, antivirals and inactivation strategies as well as evaluation of clinical samples”
       
    • Université de Genève
      Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine
      1 rue Michel-Servet
      CH-1211 Genève 4
      Switzerland
      Project title: „Antiviral activity of cyclodextrin against highly pathogenic viruses”
       
    6. Provide a diagram of the organizational structure of each programme and the reporting relationships (include individual facilities participating in the programme).

     

     

    Diagram Upload
    N/A
    7. Provide a declaration in accordance with Form A, part 2 (iii) for each facility, both governmental and non-governmental, which has a substantial proportion of its resources devoted to each national biological defence research and development programme, within the territory of the reporting State, or under its jurisdiction or control anywhere.

    Please refer to Form A, part 2 (iii).

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