Research Beyond Borders

At the frontiers of science

RBB’s past and current portfolio covers a disease space which goes beyond that of a classical therapeutic area, aiming to advance drug discovery in areas of high unmet medical need, or where existing therapies are limited in efficacy, acceptability or applicability. This is why RBB is active in diseases as diverse as heart failure, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, or spinal cord injury. A focus evolved around regenerative medicine with projects in degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis, and hearing loss.  For some diseases, where classical therapeutic modalities like small molecules or antibodies are not applicable, RBB is exploring new therapeutic modalities, with lighthouse activities in gene therapy and focused projects in the extracellular vesicle space.

Collaboration is key

The notion of ‘beyond borders’ also extends to how the research is executed – by forging collaborations with the scientific community that blend external innovation and internal expertise. Indeed, more than 80% of RBB´s projects are anchored in external collaborations. Typically, RBB has been approached by, or scouts for collaborators, jointly designs the experimental plan to advance the project to the next milestones, supports the contracting team and co-steers the project with the partner organization once the contract is signed. Often, RBB steers collaborations with multiple external partners in parallel (biotech, academia, contract research) if the complexity of the task requires it.  Since its foundation in 2015, the RBB team has established around 170 partnerships with world-leading universities and academic research institutions and biotech companies in the U.S., Europe, Asia and beyond.

Our Partnering Interests in Research Beyond Borders

In the frame of the Grass Roots initiatives, RBB Austria actively collaborates with Business Development & Licensing team and the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) to foster the Austrian Life Science Ecosystem. These activities include the Boehringer Ingelheim Office Hours Vienna, where senior professionals within Boehringer support life-science innovators and entrepreneurs in a consultative ‘roundtable’ setting. The team also organizes the  Boehringer Ingelheim Innovation Prize Austria. This award recognizes the challenge and dedication of life-science entrepreneurs in advancing new ideas in the “Startup Labs”, located at the Vienna BioCenter Campus VBC6. The Startup Labs emerged from an initiative organized by the Vienna Business Agency, the IMP, Boehringer Ingelheim RCV, and LISAvienna.

RBB Austria further supports biotech companies and Life Science innovation by (co-)sponsoring the renowned Best-of-Biotech (BoB) Award, organized by the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS).  Similarly, Boehringer Ingelheim and RBB contributed to shaping innovation initiatives in Austria, such as Wings 4 Innovation, which facilitates translation of biomedical innovation by closing the gap between academic research and drug development.