10 A niversary of IIMCB

laboratories were launched: the Laboratory of Molecular
Immunology, headed by Dr. Jarosław Dastych, and the
Department of Molecular Biology, under the leadership of
Prof. Maciej Żylicz.
Since 2002, Prof. J. Kuźnicki has been Director of
the Institute, and Prof. M. Witt the Institute’s Deputy
Scientific Director. These two appointments have officially
regularised the situation which had existed in IIMCB since
the start of its formal existence.
Since then, the Institute’s affairs have started to move
even faster. Ongoing dynamic development of the
International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology still
remains the main thread of the story about an institution
which remains atypical.
To be in line with such a name several distinctive features
of IIMCB should be noted. Involvement of the International
Advisory Board (IAB), the rules of recruitment of all faculty
members through international competition and lack of
tenure employment make it unique among Polish research
institutions. The principles of organization of the Institute
differ from other research institutes in the country: an
important body of the Institute is the International Advisory
Board, acting as the Scientific Council; the leader of each
research team of the Institute is selected in an international
competition; group leader’s initial employment is limited to
a five-year contract; three years after beginning the research
work, progress of research is assessed by the International
Advisory Board. Based on IAB’s recommendation
professor’s contract may be either terminated or extended.
The International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology is
directly subordinate to the President of the Polish Academy
of Sciences, who supervises the organization and activities
of the Institute. The President of PAN nominates members
of IAB and the Institute’s Directors. An important link
between the Institute and the President of PAN is the 2 nd
Department of Biological Sciences of PAN, to which the
Institute belongs together with sixteen institutes of PAN.
The Institute is financed in part from the national budget
(statutory subvention; budgetary subvention via PAN)
and in part from other sources (Ministry of Science and
Higher Education, Foundation for Polish Science, UNESCO,
Framework Programs of EU, Max Planck Society, Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, European Molecular Biology
Organisation, National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust,
etc.). About 60% of funds arrive as competitive grant awards
received by the group leaders.
IIMCB is located at the building loaned by the Polish
Academy of Sciences. It offers 16,820 m 3 of cubic space, with
4,032 m 2 of internal surface. It is divided into seven floors and a
basement. The administrative sector is located on the ground
floor and partly on 1 st floor (Directors’ offices, the lecture hall
for 60 people, the meeting room for 20 people, other offices
and social rooms). Floors from the 1 st to the 5 th are arranged as
a typical laboratory space, a “Faraday – cage“ lab for sensitive
electronic measurements (e.g. electrophysiology), cold-rooms,
a dark room, offices and common space for heavy laboratory
equipment (see: http://www.iimcb.gov.pl/equipment.php).
On the 5 th floor, a part of the laboratory space is prepared to
accommodate a cell and molecular biology school – training
laboratory for up to 18 students.
Annual Report 2008 3