History of Unitectra

In the context of the Swiss National Science Foundation's Priority Program Biotechnology (SPP BioTech), Herbert Reutimann and Adrian Sigrist in 1996 found Biotectra based in Basel. Its mission is to provide consulting and assistance to researchers of the SPP BioTech in all aspects regarding technology transfer. Based on a mandate Biotectra takes over the responsibility for technology transfer at the University of Zurich in 1997 and at the University of Bern in 1998.
 

In 1999, the Universities of Bern and Zurich found Unitectra. As a non-profit corporation under Swiss law, Unitectra is wholly owned by the Universities of Bern and Zurich, and operates as a joint technology transfer office of the two universities with five employees at the two locations Bern and Zurich. The technology transfer activities steadily increase over the years as well as the number of employees.

A third location is opened in 2011 in Basel when Unitectra also becomes the technology transfer office of the University of Basel. The Unitectra team grows to 13 employees. In the same year, Unitectra receives the prestigious «European Biotechnica Award 2011» for its «exceptional contribution to the initiation and promotion of cooperation between the publicly funded research community and business».
 

In 2019, having been in business for 20 years, Unitectra looks back on around 2000 invention disclosures from university research, 1200 patents, 1000 licenses, and more than 200 spin-off companies. More than 100 products under license from one of the three universities were launched on the market; research contracts for around 18’000 research projects were negotiated with external partners.
 

Since 2019, Adrian Sigrist (co-founder of Unitectra) has been managing the company, which currently counts 16 employees.