Meet the New Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery at University of Oxford

In our 20^th year, The Kavli Foundation endows its 20^th Kavli Institute globally, and a fifth institute in nanoscience. The new Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery (Kavli INSD) at Oxford is a unique combination of structural biology with world-leading biochemistry, pathology, chemistry, physics, physiology and engineering.

The multidisciplinary nature of nanoscience broadens the possibilities for discoveries, some of which translate more quickly into innovations that can benefit economies and humanity worldwide. A recent example of this development is the gene-editing technology CRISPR, whose creators received The Kavli Prize in Nanoscience in 2018 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for their discovery.

With a new building at the center of the sciences on the Oxford campus, Kavli INSD will house more than 40 faculty and 400 students, postdocs and research staff. Plans for its scientific program encourage a robust, open and discovery-driven culture. Kavli INSD will be led by Professor Carol Robinson, the current president of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a highly decorated analytical chemist known for her work in using mass spectrometry to elucidate the 3D structures of proteins. The institute will open its doors in January 2021.

With a unique model of endowing research institutes, The Kavli Foundation transfers wealth to a university’s endowment, providing the “free energy” for them to take risks in their research and use the annual payout without restriction. Our long-term partnership with Kavli Institutes is based on a deep commitment to basic science and to the foundation’s mission to advance science for the benefit of humanity.

“The Kavli Foundation is honored to have a major research institute at the historic University of Oxford,” said Robert W. Conn, president and CEO of The Kavli Foundation. “Oxford presented a cohesive and comprehensive scientific vision paired with a substantial university commitment and excellent scientific leadership. We welcome Oxford and the Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery to the Kavli Institute family.”