Politics

The national innovation platform Switzerland Innovation is expanding in Eastern Switzerland with its latest addition, the Innovation Park East. On 21 April, the Federal Council has given the thumbs up. The main location is in the immediate vicinity of Empa in St. Gallen.

EPFL researchers show that foreign companies are less likely to have their patent applications granted in China than their Chinese counterparts. This discrimination occurs in technologies of strategic importance to the Chinese government: the telecommunication and biotech industries.

Many cocoa farmers live in poverty – yet the fairly traded chocolate bunny often stays on the shelves. We should pay more attention to origin when buying chocolate, believes Isabel Günther.

Parliament kept us in suspense once more during spring session. The ETH Act required a conciliation committee to reach a compromise between the National Council and the Council of States. On the other hand, the issue of the popular initiative "Yes to the ban on experiments on animals and humans" was clear: all parliamentary groups in the National Council rejected the proposal.

As Chair of the National Science Task Force, Martin Ackermann has to perform a constant balancing act between science, politics, the media and society. So how does he do it?

International Women’s Day Series - When she was just 27 years old, Hélène Fueger was hired by the University of Fribourg to serve as its new Women’s Issues Officer. She began to tackle, on her own, the tricky issue of gender equality there. In 2006 she was selected to head an EU program on mentoring opportunities for female students and postdocs, and she joined EPFL in 2015 as equal opportunities delegate.

For the first time, an EPFL survey has traced the careers of its women graduates. Its findings – together with several alumnae’s personal accounts – show how effectively these women have integrated into the job market. The survey also reveals, however, the roadblocks to their professional advancement along with their hopes for greater gender equality.

To mark International Women’s Day 2021, Julia Dannath-Schuh, Vice President of Personnel Development and Leadership, reflects on equal opportunities and the advancement of women at ETH. Her conclusion: The ETH community must become more female – at every level.

Without animal experiments there would be no COVID-19 vaccine: animal testing is essential for medical research. A ban on testing – even a gradual phase-out – would be extremely damaging for research policy, writes Detlef Günther.

Can Switzerland, as planned, reduce its CO₂ emissions to zero by 2050? What is needed to achieve this? What could it cost?

In the latest QS rankings by subject, ETH Zurich was among the top ten in 15 different disciplines. The university remains the global leader in earth sciences.

March 3 marks the anniversary of the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which has regulated international trade in endangered species since 1973. WSL biologist Josef Senn heads the scientific expert commission that advises the Swiss CITES enforcement authority. On the occasion of the CITES anniversary, World Wildlife Day on 3 March, we asked him five questions.

For Switzerland to become climate neutral, there’s no way around electric mobility. But to get e-cars going, the public must push for charging stations where people live, argues Anthony Patt. 

Swiss science benefits from international collaboration and exchange. Signing a mandate for another four years, ETH Zurich continues as Leading House for bilateral cooperation in science and technology East and Southeast Asia.

Education and research are not the focus of the spring session of the Federal Parliament. However, with the popular initiative to ban animal and human experimentation and the latest differences in the ETH Law, exciting discussions are scheduled that directly affect Switzerland as a centre of research and the ETH Domain.