AIID Facility

A new state-of-the-art facility

A new globally leading centre for infectious diseases research, education and public health will be built in Melbourne to support the AIID. Providing state-of-the-art research platforms and technology will enable research translation into faster, more effective diagnostic tests, treatments, vaccines, and public health interventions for infectious diseases.

Funding

The Victorian Government has committed up to $400 million for the $650 million project, with funding also being provided by the University of Melbourne, the Doherty Institute and Burnet Institute, along with philanthropic support.

Location

The new facility will be built in the world-leading Melbourne Biomedical Precinct. It will enable the Doherty Institute to expand and the Burnet Institute to relocate to the Parkville site.  The facility will house more than 1000 scientists, academics, students and public health experts from the institutes alongside industry start-ups. Co-location will strengthen collaboration and engagement with their peers nationally and internationally and create a platform for new partnerships to be forged with the private sector and industry stakeholders.

Facilities and research platforms

The AIID will provide vital facilities and research platforms needed to develop vaccines and treatments for infectious diseases, including:

• New high containment facilities enabling identification, isolation and characterisation of new viruses and other infectious diseases
• New drug screening, imaging and testing in high containment needed for early-stage human drug and vaccine research
• Human infection challenge clinical trial facilities, which allow for infection of human subjects in a safe environment and rapid evaluation of new drugs and vaccines, providing unique capabilities for new partnerships with large and small pharmaceutical companies
• Robotic biobanking to store biomedical samples efficiently and safely from large clinical trials
• Public health genomics, incorporating future technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to allow for rapid outbreak response and understand transmission of infectious diseases
• Cross-disciplinary disease transmission modelling for prediction of new outbreaks and intervention impact
• Dedicated industry partner space for production and commercialisation of medical products and procedures to improve health outcomes