Summer 2001 has been a very important and successful period for the ROTRF.

The ROTRF was established by the Roche Group in 1998 as a charitable, autonomous and legally independent organisation. At that time, the Roche Group indicated its commitment to the international transplant community by providing funds of CHF 25 million for the first five years, with two funding cycles per year. The transplant community was grateful for this generous gift and responded vigorously to the opportunity.

The ROTRF has just passed the midpoint of the first five years with the completion of the sixth cycle of grant review. I am pleased to announce, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, that ten research grants with a total of 2 million Swiss francs (CHF) have been awarded to scientists around the world in this funding cycle.

The Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Committee are very pleased that the ROTRF continues to receive applications of generally high scientific quality and originality. Details of the increasing accomplishments of the researchers funded by ROTRF can be found in the lay abstracts and grant reports in this and previous ROTRF Biannual Reports. Many high-quality papers have already been published in respected international journals, and it is to be expected that the number of papers will grow considerably over the next few years.

The ROTRF is fulfilling its mission to advance the science of solid organ transplantation. It is a great and unique achievement – an international competition with an international review – and much of the credit for the success goes to the scientists sending their projects to the ROTRF and the excellent reviews of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Everybody involved can be proud of the Foundation. The new knowledge will contribute to the progress of our clinical mission.

Therefore, we, as the Trustees of the ROTRF, are very pleased that the Roche Group has decided to continue their strong commitment to the transplant community and to continue their support of the ROTRF with an additional CHF 15 million distributed over three years. On behalf of the international transplant community and the patients who have and need organ transplants, we want to express our deep gratitude to the Roche Group for this new gift and for their vote of confidence in us and in the field of organ transplantation.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees

Phil Halloran