The Ragon Institute was established in 2009 with a dual mission: to contribute to the accelerated discovery of an HIV/AIDS vaccine and subsequently establish itself as a world leader in the collaborative study of immunology. Founded with a commitment of $100 million from Phillip T. (Terry) and Susan M. Ragon, and with an additional $200 million gift to endow the Institute announced on April 26, 2019, the Institute is structured and positioned to significantly contribute to a global effort to successfully develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine by: • Creating non-traditional partnerships among experts with different but complementary backgrounds; • Providing a means for rapidly funding promising studies; • Integrating key facets of vaccine development efforts that have tended to follow separate tracks; • Providing a substantial pool of accessible, flexible funding that lowers the threshold for scientists to pursue risky, unconventional avenues of study that are unlikely to attract funding from traditional sources. Such funding encourages innovation, compresses the time it takes to conduct bench-to-bedside research and attracts new minds to the field. The Ragon Institute creates a singular opportunity and environment to engage scientists, engineers and clinicians in challenging research for which there is no greater benefit – saving lives and curing the ill.