The Institute of Chemical Immunology (ICI) is a Dutch, nation-wide multidisciplinary research institute that conducts innovative chemical biology research with immunological questions as its focus. Founded in 2014 and funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Science and Education (Gravitation Program), the ICI combines the strengths of the chemistry departments at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), Leiden University (organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, bioorganic chemistry) and the Bijvoet Center at Utrecht University (Bijvoet-UU, analytical chemistry, structural biology) with the molecular and cellular immunology strongholds at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam and the Radboud University Medical Center (RUNMC) in Nijmegen. In addition, the ICI has partnerships with key researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center, the Academic Medical Center (University of Amsterdam) and the University Medical Center Utrecht. The ICI aims at the development of new strategies, tools and techniques, rooted at one side in chemistry and fundamentally linked to outstanding immunological questions, to create new solutions for immune-related diseases. The ICI has chosen as its focal areas rheumatology (silencing of undesired immune reactions) and immuno-oncology (enhancement of desired immune reactions). The ICI supports its interdisciplinary research program through the establishment of a bi-disciplinary PhD educational program.