Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps and the Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's population of 9 million are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts the largest cities and economic centres, including Zürich, Geneva and Basel.
ETH Zurich is a public research university in Zürich, Switzerland. Founded by the Swiss federal government in 1854, with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists; the school focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, although its 16 departments span a variety of disciplines and subjects.
A Fachhochschule, abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, technology, business, architecture, design, and industrial design.
The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the European Research Area (ERA). Starting in 2014, the funding programmes were named Horizon.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established in 2008 intended to strengthen Europe's ability to innovate. The EIT’s three “core pillars” of activities are: entrepreneurial education programmes and courses across Europe that transform students into entrepreneurs; business creation and acceleration services that scale ideas and budding businesses; and innovation-driven research projects that turn ideas into products by connecting partners, investors, and expertise.
Christoph Beat Graber (*1960) is a Swiss legal scholar and professor of legal sociology with particular focus on media law at the University of Zurich since 2015. He was previously a founding member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lucerne and a consultant to various Swiss federal offices and the OECD on communication, cultural and copyright law issues.
Science and technology in Switzerland play an important role in the Swiss economy, which has very few natural resources that are available in the country. The Swiss National Science Foundation, mandated by the Federal government, is the most important institute for promoting scientific research.
The Swiss Electromagnetics Research and Engineering Centre (SEREC) is the sole organization for handling electromagnetic research and concerns in Switzerland.
The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology is a Swiss research institution for application-oriented materials science and technology. It has three locations – Dübendorf, St. Gallen and Thun. As part of the ETH Domain, it is assigned to the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER). For more than 100 years since its foundation in 1880, Empa has been a material testing institute. Since the late 1980s, it has increasingly transformed into an interdisciplinary research institute for materials and technologies.
The Swiss Space Office (SSO) is the federal government's competence centre for national and international space matters. In its role it cooperates closely with other federal offices and is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the policy and strategic orientations of the space domain in Switzerland. The SSO is part of the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation. The Head of the SSO is Dr. Renato Krpoun.
The CSEM is a Swiss research and development centre (R&D) active in the fields of precision manufacturing, digitalization, and renewable energy. It follows a public-private not-for-profit partnership model. CSEM develops and transfers technologies that are considered relevant in progressing the Swiss national economy. CSEM is a R&D Center of Science and technology in Switzerland.
Swissnex is a network of education, research, innovation and art outposts aimed at connecting Switzerland with the world's innovation hubs. The network is managed by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) in cooperation with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). There are currently five Swissnex branches: Boston (2000), San Francisco (2003), Shanghai, China (2008), Bangalore, India (2011) and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2013). One Swissnex office operated in Singapore from 2004 to 2015.
The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland is one of the Universities of Applied Sciences of the Swiss Confederation. SUPSI offers more than 30 bachelor and master courses, complementing theoretical scientific knowledge and practical technological advances applied to real projects. Various departments of SUPSI are mainly based in Southern Switzerland. Instruction is mainly in Swiss Italian, with some courses delivered in English and German.
Twelve national referendums were held in Switzerland during 2014.
Michael Otmar Hengartner is a Swiss-Canadian biochemist and molecular biologist. From February 2020 he has been president of the ETH Board. Before that he was the president of the University of Zurich and president of the Swiss Rectors' Conference, swissuniversities.
SHL Schweizerische Hotelfachschule Luzern is the partner for applied hospitality management education with national and international recognition. Founded in 1909, SHL is a leading professional-oriented hotel management institution in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Anna Christmann is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been a member of the Bundestag, the German parliament, since the 2017 German federal election.
The Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training(SFUVET), previously the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training(SFIVET), is the central Swiss educational institution for vocational education and training. It functions under the auspices of the Confederation.
Martina Hirayama is a German-Swiss chemist, university lecturer and, since 2019, State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation (SBFI) in Switzerland.
