Bertarelli Foundation

Last updated
Bertarelli Foundation
Typeprivate foundation
IndustryMarine conservation and science, Health and life science
Founded1998
Headquarters
Gstaad, Switzerland
Key people
Ernesto Bertarelli, Dona Bertarelli, Maria Iris
Website https://www.fondation-bertarelli.org

The Bertarelli Foundation is a private foundation founded by the Bertarelli family; brother and sister Ernesto and Dona Bertarelli, who are co-Chairs of the Foundation, and their mother, Maria Iris Bertarelli. It was established in 1998 in memory of Fabio Bertarelli and is based in Gstaad, Switzerland. [1] For ten years, the Bertarelli Foundation focused on promoting an understanding of infertility, especially multiple gestations. [2] This reflected the work of the family’s business, Ares-Serono, in the field, including its development of influential infertility treatment Pergonal. [3] Following the sale of Serono, the Bertarelli Foundation refocused its activities onto the fields of marine conservation and neuroscience research, as well as projects in their local communities. [4] The Foundation has a sister organisation in Italy, the Fondazione Bertarelli, which promotes cultural activities in Tuscany, where the family’s ColleMassari wine estate is located. [5]

Contents

Activities

Marine conservation

The Bertarelli Foundation is active in the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), both in terms of providing material support and in terms of advocacy. In 2010 it worked with the British Government to provide the financial backing to enable the designation of the Chagos Marine Protected Area in the British Indian Ocean Territory. [6]

In 2012, the Foundation provided the funding and practical support to advance the designation of a marine reserve centred on the Turneffe Atoll in Belize, which is part of the largest and most biodiverse coral reef system in the western hemisphere. [7] [8]

In 2015, it again partnered with the British Government and also with the Pew Charitable Trusts for the creation of a marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands. In 2017, a 740,000 km² MPA was created off the coast of Easter Island. [9] [10] [11] The Bertarelli Foundation, in partnership with Pew Charitable Trusts, supported the campaign for the MPA’s creation as part of a developing partnership which has now become the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, and is led by Dona Bertarelli. [12] The Pew Bertarelli project was also involved in the campaign to create the Revillagigedo Archipelago National Park which was announced by Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto in November 2017. [13] The Foundation and Pew are also advocating for the creation of a marine park around the South Sandwich Islands on the edge of the Antarctic. [14]

As well as its work to create and advocate for the creation of marine protected areas, the foundation established the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science in 2017, partnering with universities from around the world to advance ocean science in the Indian Ocean. [15] Several expeditions to the territory have already taken place, with reports published on the British Government’s BIOT website. [16]

Neuroscience research

In 2010, the Bertarelli Foundation entered into a partnership with Harvard Medical School and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) to a joint neuroengineering programme, the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering. [17] [18] The aim of the programme is to foster collaboration in neuroscience between the two institutions. [19] The partnership also endowed a Bertarelli Chair at Harvard Medical School and there is an annual symposium held at which findings from the programme are discussed. [20] In 2014, the partnership was renewed, with funding of $3.6m provided to five projects of three-year duration between scientists at Harvard Medical School and bioengineers at EPFL. Three of these projects focus on new methods to diagnose and treat deafness; the fourth on cell transplantation strategies to reverse blindness; and the fifth on dealing with difficulties in diagnosing children with autism. [21] The programme also sponsors an exchange programme for students at the two institutions. [22] In 2018, the Bertarelli Foundation donated $6.35m to Harvard Medical School for research in sensory disorders. [23]

The foundation also sponsors four chairs at EPFL’s Center for Neuroprosthetics, [24] which is now located at Campus Biotech in Geneva, the former Serono headquarters bought back by a consortium led by Ernesto Bertarelli to be a life sciences hub for the region. [25] They are Professor Olaf Blanke, Professor Stéphanie P. Lacour, Professor Mackenzie Weygandt Mathis and Professor Silvestro Micera. [26]

In 2017, the Bertarelli Foundation gave a further 10 million Swiss francs to EPFL to further develop research into neurological disorders. [27] [28] Half of the donation will fund a new gene therapy platform at Campus Biotech in Geneva; the other half will create a new catalyst fund to further collaboration at the same institution. [29]

Other activities

In 2008 the Bertarelli Foundation funded a new classroom and a medical centre at Henna Pre-School in South Africa having visited the school during a family holiday. [30] [31]

In 2014, it partnered with Harvard Business School to establish the Bertarelli Foundation Health & Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Fund. A separate gift of $3 million created the Bertarelli Catalyst Fund for the Dean of HMS. [32] As part of the funding, a Bertarelli Prize is awarded to a winning team from the Harvard i-Lab for those students “pursuing innovative solutions to improve healthcare and patients’ lives”. [33]

In 2014, the Bertarelli Foundation donated $3 million to Babson College to create a new faculty chair, the Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship. In 2017, Babson named William B. Gartner to the post. [34] [35]

In Stoke-on-Trent, Kirsty Bertarelli, the former wife of Ernesto Bertarelli and a former trustee of the Bertarelli Foundation, has launched projects supporting YMCA North Staffordshire and the Stoke-on-Trent Literary Festival, which takes place annually at the Emma Bridgwater factory in the city and which was established by former MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, Tristram Hunt. [36] [37]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne</span> Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

The École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), also known as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, is a public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland. Specializing in natural sciences and engineering, it is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babson College</span> Business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S.

Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1919, its central focus is on entrepreneurship education. It was founded by Roger W. Babson as an all-male business institute but became coeducational in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernesto Bertarelli</span> Swiss-Italian billionaire

Ernesto Silvio Maurizio Bertarelli is an Italian-born Swiss billionaire businessman and philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Pew Charitable Trusts</span> American non-profit, non-governmental organization

The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merck Serono</span> German pharmaceutical company

Merck Serono is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany, and a brand and division of Merck focused on biopharmaceuticals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsty Bertarelli</span>

Kirsty Bertarelli is a songwriter, former Miss UK and a former wife of Ernesto Bertarelli, an Italian-born Swiss businessman who was the owner of biotech giant Serono until 2007 and winner of the America's Cup in 2003 and 2007 with his yachting syndicate Alinghi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dona Bertarelli</span> Swiss businesswoman of Italian origin

Dona Bertarelli is a Swiss businesswoman of Italian origin. She is co-president of the Bertarelli Foundation. She is also a sailor, having won the 2010 Bol d’Or Mirabaud and, with her team Spindrift Racing, the Rolex Fastnet in 2013. In the same year, she and her team also broke the record for the America Discovery Route. In 2020, she became an adviser to UNCTAD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turneffe Atoll</span>

Turneffe Atoll is located southeast of Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, off the coast of Belize in Central America, 20 miles from Belize City. It is one of three atolls of the Belize Barrier Reef, along with Glover's Reef and Lighthouse Reef. It is approximately 30 miles long and 10 miles wide, making it the largest coral atoll in Belize and in the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. The atoll was officially declared a marine reserve on November 22, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering</span>

The Wyss Center is a not-for-profit neurotechnology research foundation in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Chagos Marine Protected Area, located in the central Indian Ocean in the British Indian Ocean Territory of the United Kingdom, is one of the world's largest marine protected areas, and one of the largest protected areas of any type on Earth. It was established by the British government on 1 April 2010 as a massive, contiguous, no-take marine reserve, it encompasses 640,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi) of ocean waters, including roughly 70 small islands and seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campus Biotech</span> Swiss research institution

The Campus Biotech is a Swiss institution hosting research institutes and biotechnology companies. The Campus Biotech is located in the former Merck Serono building, in Geneva (Switzerland).

The Health Valley covers the Western Switzerland region, where the life sciences sector extends from Geneva to Bern, including the seven cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Valais and Vaud. This cluster presents a critical mass of 1,000 companies, research centers and innovation support structures, representing today more than 25,000 employees. The Health Valley strives to animate the life sciences ecosystem of the region, by establishing thriving bridges between its ambassadors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Donoghue (neuroscientist)</span>

John Philip Donoghue is an American neuroscientist; he is currently the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Engineering at Brown University, where he has taught since 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Sandi</span> Spanish behavioral neuroscientist

Carmen Sandi is a Spanish and Swiss behavioral neuroscientist. She is a professor of neuroscience and director of the Laboratory of Behavioral Genetics at the Brain Mind Institute.

Mackenzie W. Mathis, is an American neuroscientist and principal investigator at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Her lab investigates adaptive mechanisms in biological and artificial intelligence to inform adaptive AI systems and translational research in neurological diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Mathis</span> Alexander Mathis, Austrian computational neuroscientist

Alexander Mathis is an Austrian mathematician, computational neuroscientist and software developer. He is currently an assistant professor at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. His research interest focus on research at the intersection of computational neuroscience and machine learning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olaf Blanke</span> Swiss and German physician, neurologist and neuroscientist

Olaf Blanke is a Swiss and German physician, neurologist and neuroscientist. He holds the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Cognitive Neuroprosthetics at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He directs the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Brain Mind Institute of EPFL and is professor of Neurology at Geneva University Hospitals. Blanke is known for his research on the neurological bases of self-consciousness and out-of-body experiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavan Ramdya</span> US-American neuroscientist

Pavan Ramdya is an American neuroscientist and bioengineer. His research centers on understanding the neuromechanical control of behavior and its application to robotics and artificial intelligence in neurosciences. He holds the Firmenich Next Generation Chair in neuroscience and bioengineering at EPFL, and is head of the Neuroengineering Laboratory at EPFL's School of Life Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedhelm Hummel</span> German neuroscientist and neurologist

Friedhelm Christoph Hummel is a German neuroscientist and neurologist. A full professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, he is the Defitech Chair of Clinical Neuroengineering, and the head of the Hummel Laboratory at EPFL's School of Life Sciences. He also is an associate professor of clinical neuroscience at the University of Geneva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Marine Foundation</span> Marine conservation organisation

Blue Marine Foundation is a marine conservation organisation. It was founded as a legacy project following the 2009 documentary film The End of the Line. It has been involved in establishing marine reserves in the Chagos Archipelago, Lyme Bay, and Turneffe Atoll.

References

  1. ↑ "HBS gift establishes entrepreneurship fund". Harvard Gazette. 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  2. ↑ Germond, Marc (2007). "The Bertarelli Foundation's actions in the field of multiple gestations". Reproductive Biomedicine Online. 15 Suppl 3: 1–5. doi:10.1016/s1472-6483(10)62242-0. ISSN   1472-6491. PMID   18598600.
  3. ↑ Andrea Adelson (1995-02-26). "Wall Street; A Fertility Drug Grows Scarce". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  4. ↑ College, Babson. "Bertarelli Entrepreneurship Chair|News & Events" . Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  5. ↑ "Fondazione Bertarelli". fondazionebertarelli.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  6. ↑ "Billionaire saves marine reserve plans". The Independent. 2010-09-12. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  7. ↑ "The Reporter Newspaper – British billionaires will adopt Turneffe Atoll £3 million to make it a marine reserve". www.reporter.bz. Archived from the original on 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  8. ↑ "Belize declares new marine reserve around Turneffe Atoll | Fauna & Flora International". www.fauna-flora.org. 26 November 2012. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  9. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (2015-03-18). "Huge marine reserve for Pitcairn". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  10. ↑ "U.K. wants eyes in the sky to keep watch on its record marine reserve". Science | AAAS. 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  11. ↑ "Chile creates reserve around Easter Island to protect marine life". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  12. ↑ Neslen, Arthur (2017-09-09). "One of world's largest marine parks created off coast of Easter Island". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  13. ↑ Weisberger, LiveScience, Mindy. "Mexico Designates North America's Largest Ocean Reserve". Scientific American. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  14. ↑ Gill, Victoria (2017-09-28). "Bid to protect Antarctic UK territory". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  15. ↑ "Assessing two years of back-to-back reef changes in the Chagos Archipelago". Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  16. ↑ "2016 Science Expeditions | British Indian Ocean Territory". biot.gov.io. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  17. ↑ "Ernesto Bertarelli réunit l'EPFL et la Harvard Medical School". Bilan (in French). Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  18. ↑ Mitchell, Michael David (2010-10-29). "Harvard and EPFL announce joint program in neuroengineering".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ↑ swissinfo.ch, Rita Emch in Boston. "Swiss and US neuroscience research gets boost". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  20. ↑ "Harvard Medical School Accepts $9M Gift | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  21. ↑ "Engineering Research Partnerships To Launch in Jan. | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  22. ↑ "Back at EPFL after a year in Harvard | STI". sti.epfl.ch. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  23. ↑ "Bertarelli Foundation redoubles its investment in Harvard Medical School research". Harvard Gazette. 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
  24. ↑ "Sponsors | CNP". cnp.epfl.ch. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  25. ↑ "Swiss billionaires buy Merck Serono HQ for biotech campus". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  26. ↑ "Principal Investigators | CNP". cnp.epfl.ch. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  27. ↑ "Campus Biotech". www.campusbiotech.ch. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  28. ↑ "Ernesto Bertarelli: "Nous souhaitons agrandir le Campus Biotech à Genève"" (in French). Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  29. ↑ "Des Chinois au Campus Biotech et un gros chèque". tdg.ch/. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  30. ↑ "The ballad of the billionaire". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  31. ↑ "Lion Sands Tinga Lodge". Lion Sands Tinga Lodge. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  32. ↑ "Bertarelli Foundation Gift Names Deans' Health & Life Sciences Challenge Prize - Alumni - Harvard Business School". www.alumni.hbs.edu. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  33. ↑ "2016 Harvard Deans' Challenges winners announced". Harvard Gazette. 2016-05-17. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  34. ↑ "Babson College establishes Bertarelli Foundation chair of family entrepreneurship - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  35. ↑ College, Babson. "Distinguished Professor of Family Entrepreneurship" . Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  36. ↑ "Songstress releases festive single with YMCA North Staffordshire choir - YMCA England & Wales". YMCA England & Wales. 2014-12-08. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  37. ↑ PoliticsHome.com (2014-04-01). "Tristram Hunt MP: Launching the Stoke-on-Trent Literary Festival this June". PoliticsHome.com. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.