The Thuringian Institute Director and the FLI President presented the project to the public during the open house in September of this year. The start of construction is scheduled for autumn 2018, and the building, which is equipped with state-of-the-art security technology, will be ready for occupancy by 2021.
The FLI is a federal research institute for the health of food-producing animals with headquarters on the island of Riems and has a total of 11 locations in Germany. For more than 60 years now, research has been carried out at the Jena site on bacterial animal diseases and infections that can be transmitted to humans (zoonoses), and currently has 130 employees. The reference laboratories in Jena diagnose animal diseases for German authorities and the World Organization for Animal Health. The Thuringian institute advises the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in this specialist area. This investment underscores the high degree to which the work of the federal research institute is respected and appreciated both nationally and internationally, from basic research, to work as a national reference laboratory for notifiable animal diseases, to policy advice. (maa)