INSTITUT PASTEUR

Their core work

Institut Pasteur is a world-renowned biomedical research institute in Paris focused on infectious diseases, immunology, neuroscience, and genomics. They conduct fundamental and translational research spanning from molecular biology of pathogens (Ebola, malaria, tuberculosis) to computational neuroscience and genome editing technologies like CRISPR. With a strong track record in both leading large research consortia and attracting individual ERC and Marie Curie fellowships, they serve as a major European hub for training doctoral researchers and responding to global health emergencies. Their work bridges laboratory science with public health applications, including diagnostics, vaccine development, and antimicrobial resistance surveillance.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2014-2018), Institut Pasteur was heavily mobilized around emergency infectious disease response — particularly the Ebola outbreak — while also maintaining core work in virology, stem cell communication, and research infrastructure like the European Virus Archive. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted markedly toward computational neuroscience (Human Brain Project participation, neuroinformatics, neuromorphic computing), biomarker discovery, antimicrobial resistance, and open science practices. This evolution reflects a strategic move from reactive outbreak response toward data-intensive, computationally driven biomedical research with broader disease scope.

Institut Pasteur is increasingly investing in computational biology, brain research, and antimicrobial resistance — signaling strong future capacity for data-driven biomedical collaborations beyond their traditional infectious disease base.

How they like to work

Institut Pasteur operates almost equally as a project coordinator (52 projects) and consortium participant (62 projects), making them unusually versatile — comfortable both leading and contributing. With 781 unique consortium partners across 63 countries, they function as a major network hub rather than a loyal-partner organization, bringing exceptional reach and connection diversity. Their heavy use of individual fellowships (22 MSCA, 20 ERC grants) alongside large RIA consortia (40 projects) shows they attract top individual talent while simultaneously managing complex multi-partner collaborations.

With 781 unique consortium partners spanning 63 countries, Institut Pasteur has one of the most extensive collaboration networks in European research — truly global in scope, reaching well beyond Europe into Africa, Asia, and the Americas through their international network of Pasteur Institutes.

What sets them apart

Institut Pasteur combines the depth of a specialized infectious disease institute with the breadth of a comprehensive biomedical research center, a combination rare in Europe. Their global network of affiliated Pasteur Institutes gives them unmatched field access for studying pathogens in endemic regions, while their Paris campus provides the computational and genomic infrastructure for advanced data analysis. For consortium builders, they bring both scientific prestige and operational capacity — they can lead a 20-partner consortium as effectively as they can contribute specialized virology or CRISPR expertise to a focused team.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CRISPAIR
  Coordinator of a EUR 1.5M project studying CRISPR-DNA repair interplay — positioned at the frontier of genome editing tool development with direct therapeutic implications.
• PASTEURDOC
  EUR 2.35M doctoral training program demonstrating institutional investment in next-generation biomedical researchers with a global health orientation.
• PERIF
  Longest-running project (2015-2023, EUR 1.97M) on inflammation and fibrosis, bridging fundamental perivascular cell biology with cancer stroma targeting.