Ongoing and planned projects

Open Access Platforms

Until 2024, the Swiss Government was supporting the operation and maintenance of the three national research pillars of the Balgrist Campus. From 2025 onwards, their operation will need financial support to fill the gaps left by research grants that – by their nature – are never cost covering for high-tech infrastructures.
 
In addition, each of the three platforms conducts its own research and needs funds for future investments:

• The SCMI wishes to expand the unique 7T-MRI suite to other joints than spine, knee or head. Each new coil for a specific joint costs between CHF 50'000-100'000.
   
• The SCMB seeks funding to establish a world leading open-access repository of musculoskeletal patient tissues; CHF 100'000 would allow to collect, study and bank 100 samples from patients suffering from musculoskeletal tumors, scoliosis, tendon disease or spinal cord injury.
   
• With CHF 100'000 the SCMA could establish a world-leading open-access digital repository of human movement datasets.
   

Group Guest Sabbatical

With this project we try to complement and boost the internal research groups with an invited group of world leading experts, who are working in the currently most promising research areas of musculoskeletal science. This fosters an international network between principal investigators, PhDs and technicians and promotes interaction and faster progress at all levels.

Cost for a group guest sabbatical: CHF 500'000

3D-Printing

The precise planning of orthopedic operations often requires the production of a patient specific model and the development and printing of patient specific cutting-guides and instruments. This is currently only possible with high-performance 3D printers.

In addition, we offer our research groups a simple, straightforward and inexpensive way to print prototypes and mock-ups with collective prints.

The cost of a new printer is approx. CHF 200'000; however, we are of course also interested in receiving a donation in the form of a new or used printer.