At the University of Szeged, the collection, storage, and use of biological and medical samples in research and diagnostics has more than 70 years of history. Over the years, biobanking activities have been constantly changing and evolving, mainly for storing samples related to clinical care and much medical-ethical research. These initial biobanks and repositories were concentrated around a single working group. They formed the basis for the 11 biobank sites established in 2011 and operated independently under a regulated framework. From the beginning, the university has paid great attention to the development of a uniform biobanking activity and its regulation and quality management system, and in 2017 the SZTE Biobank network was established with the introduction of a uniform regulatory framework. In the following years, significant infrastructure and quality management development started. The construction of a new central biobank building with large storage capacity, building supervision, and building services engineering were upgraded. This also involved increasing storage capacity, modernization, and robotization. The SZTE Biobank has established contractual collaborations with several industrial and academic partners for sample storage and developing biobanking technologies and instrumentation.

The University of Szeged was the first in Hungary to join the Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure - European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC), and the Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 23 January 2020. Subsequently, BBMRI-HUNGARY was established in 2021, of which we are founding members.

In 2022, the ISO 20387:2018 standard was also introduced, ensuring transparency, reliability, and continuous high quality in the operation of our biobank.

The University of Szeged is internationally recognized as one of the most essential healthcare institutions in the region, with its significant educational and scientific achievements, as well as its Faculty of Medicine and Clinical Centre as such, it pays particular attention to participation in international cooperation and research related to biobanking activities, the introduction of new scientific achievements and new technologies, and their application in a wide range of social applications.