The School of Life Sciences (HLS) of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) is located in the center of the tri-national Basel area (CH – FR – DE). The HLS employs approximately 200 employees. The R&D activities of HLS encompasses a wide range of projects ranging from the development of new products and devices, and the optimization of production processes in terms of material and energy saving, to life cycle and risk assessments of such products. The four institutes of the HLS are Pharma Technology, Medical and Analytical Technologies, Chemistry and Bioanalytics (ICB) and Ecopreneurship (IEC).

Approximately 60 and 80 scientists work at the two institutes involved in Prolific, IEC and ICB, respectively. The core activities of IEC include Environmental Technologies with a strong expertise in membrane-based filtration processes, Environmental Biotechnology (focus on immobilized biocatalysts) and Sustainable Resources Management. The activities of the ICB of the FHNW encompass modern chemical synthesis, analytics and bioanalytics, chemical engineering and nanotechnology