Politics

Translating research results for society requires resources. Either we pay someone to make it work – or we pay as a society if it turns out not to work.

EPFL (the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) and The Geneva Graduate Institute (formerly IHEID) have signed an agreement to create the Swiss PeaceTech Alliance, which will bring together complementary knowledge needed to build capacity internationally in the field of PeaceTech. The partners are very proud to further announce that the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP) has also decided to join the alliance.

More than half a billion Swiss francs have been granted over 10 years to groundbreaking research projects in Switzerland within three different Wyss Centers or Academy in Zurich, Geneva and Bern. This makes entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss one of the major private donors for Swiss science. Wyss was celebrated as the laureate of the 2022 Gallatin Award of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce. The laudatio was given by Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin.

Planning and building a large-scale research facility such as the European Spallation Source ESS presents unique challenges. Physicist Marc Janoschek explains why only those who overcome them can achieve breakthroughs in research.

Dozens of EPFL lab rats will embark on new lives as domestic pets. The initiative, the first of its kind in French-speaking Switzerland, comes under a recently signed rehoming agreement with national animal welfare organization Swiss Animal Protection.

A presumed consent system for organ donation, which is to be put to the vote in Switzerland, would likely increase the organ donation rate, writes bioethicist Agata Ferretti. In her view, however, there is an even better solution: the obligation to decide.

In this episode of the podcast, ETH researchers and the former Director-General of Research and Innovation at the European Commission talk about Switzerland's exclusion from Horizon Europe.

The surge in gas and oil prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could help speed the energy transition. But high prices won’t be enough to ensure it succeeds; smart policies are still needed, writes Florian Egli.  

Anthony Patt has contributed to the new IPCC report on mitigation of climate change. Since the last report in 2014, the odds for phasing out fossil energy have changed; a net-zero world is achievable now, even if the way remains long.

The Federal Council is to submit a proposal to Parliament by mid-2024, on how new breeding technologies can be authorised on the basis of their risk. The National Council and the Council of States took this decision in the spring parliamentary session as part of the so-called "elimination of differences" process.

Yves Daccord, who served as the director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2010 to 2020, has just joined EPFL’s EssentialTech Centre as a senior advisor. In this interview, he explains how he will draw on his knowledge and contacts to help the Centre set ambitious objectives as it enters its second decade.

On International Women’s Day, the ETH podcast has a close look at facts and figures regarding gender equality at ETH Zurich.

Politicians and the media struggle with predictions. This is more a problem resulting from a poor understanding of uncertainties than from the reliability of models, argues Reto Knutti.

The extension of the moratorium on the cultivation of genetically modified organisms in agriculture by another four years until the end of 2025 is a done deal. However, there could be an exception for new technologies. The National Council and the Council of States are looking for compromises in the spring session.

Russia attacked Ukraine on Thursday night. ETH researcher Benno Zogg from the Center for Security Studies on President Putin’s goals, the effectiveness of sanctions and the consequences of the invasion for European security.