Our PhD program aims to contribute towards shaping a future generation of (bio)ethicists who will be highly efficient and reliable in providing expert advice on the unavoidable and manifold ethical issues that arise with advances in medicine, the life sciences and society. With the advancement of medicine and biotechnology and the continuous challenges they keep posing to society, the field of bioethics continues to evolve and grow. There is increasing demands for bioethics expertise in clinical and research ethics committees, in national ethics committees as well as in various health-related organizations in the public and private sectors. Funding agencies worldwide (e.g. European Commission, Genome Canada, US government funds) routinely require the integration of an ethics component in scientific projects, in order to identify (and, if possible, to prevent or minimize) adverse consequences of biotechnology and to increase the credibility and transparency of biomedical scientific projects. In addition, ethical expertise is becoming a regular requirement for researchers in different scientific areas. Therefore, our graduates can not only opt for an academic career in bioethics, but also contribute their acquired expertise in ethics committees and other ethics related regulatory fields, or even more importantly, in their own scientific or related activities.

Following its high success in obtaining grants, the IBMB has expanded and is moving to a new location in 2013 (from Missionsstrasse 24 and 64 to Bernoullistrasse, directly opposite the University Library and close to the main University lecture halls in the Kollegienhaus). Our resources include individual work stations for each student and post-docs as well as a room to host small networking events and meetings. The IBMB also owns a growing library with books on topics related to Ethics, Biomedical Ethics, Research Methods, Statistics, and Philosophy. The Institute is well integrated into the structure of the University of Basel as a result of being part of two faculties and has built collaborations with several departments and institutes including environmental sciences, public health, psychology, informatics, and law.