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Welcome to the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences

News

  • Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences SAMS

    News

    Bulletin 2/2025: Challenges and tensions surrounding global health

    Just a few years after the pandemic, the world is facing new challenges that have global health implications. These include significant reductions in development aid by some countries, including the United States. In the main article of the SAMS Bulletin, Professor Antoine Flahault calls for commitment to multilateral strategies, urging that the vision of a world with equitable access to healthcare must not be abandoned.

  • Swiss Young Academy SYA

    Blog

    Her advice is: urban planning to combat pollen

    Environmental epidemiologist Marloes Eeftens – a member of the Swiss Young Academy – has proved for the first time that pollen allergies have a greater impact on health than was previously assumed. In this portrait, she explains what drives her and why pollen should become a public health issue.

  • Swiss Young Academy SYA

    News

    Annual Report 2024 published

    Five years after it was established, the Swiss Young Academy has published its first public Annual Report.

Current publications

  • Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences a+

    Ethical guidelines for animal experiments

    The Swiss Animal Welfare Act permits the use of animals for certain scientific purposes; at the same time, however, it requires that the dignity of animals be respected and their welfare protected. For researchers, reconciling these various societal interests can be challenging. The ethical guidelines for animal experiments (2025) are designed to clarify the margin of discretion left by the legislation and to encourage researchers to reflect on the handling of animals in their experiments. The decisive factors for updating the previous version from 2005 were new scientific knowledge and research methods on the one hand, as well as changes in the legal framework on the other.

  • Swiss Academy of Sciences SCNAT

    Roles of Scientists in Sustainability Transformations: A Guide for Reflection and Workshop Facilitation

    Scientists, scientific experts, and knowledge brokers often find themselves in situations where they need to play new roles in society or are criticised for positioning themselves at the interface between science and other societal fields of action. The present guide aims to stimulate reflections on, and discussions of, various different roles that scientists perform.

  • European Academies Science Advisory Council EASAC

    Changing wildfires: policy options for a fire-literate and fire-adapted Europe

    There is an increased probability of extreme fires, due mainly to climate change (droughts and declining summer precipitation), rural depopulation, and land-use changes. To respond to this, a new European Academies report is calling for an urgent shift in wildfire policy – from reactive fire suppression to proactive, risk-based land management.

    Already today, wildfires burn half a million hectares in the EU yearly on average, i.e. nearly twice the size of Luxembourg. While the Mediterranean remains the highest-risk region, the report warns that continental, alpine, and boreal regions must also prepare for a new era of fire. Instead of focussing on fire suppression and emergency response, the report advocates for an integrated EU framework for landscape fire-risk governance that prioritises prevention alongside these three elements: climate and land-use policies that focus on restoring carbon-rich peatlands and managing forests sustainably; integrate fire risk into biodiversity and tree-planting plans; and educate for a fire-resilient society.

    The report under the auspices of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) was drafted by scientists from across Europe. On behalf of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, Marco Conedera, forest engineer at the WSL Campus in Cadenazzo, contributed as a reviewer of a draft version.

Contact

Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences

House of Academies
Laupenstrasse 7
P.O. Box
3001 Bern