Marketplace of Ideas at SRIS'26

Innosuisse – Swiss Innovation Agency

The Innosuisse Flagship Initiative promotes systemic innovation and transdisciplinary collaboration to address major economic and societal challenges highly relevant to Switzerland’s future. Innosuisse defines specific yet broadly framed flagship topics that encourage consortia from science, industry and the public sector to jointly develop new solutions, services and business models in areas of strategic importance for the country.

Current flagship projects are active in fields such as sustainable and circular supply chains, seasonal energy storage and the data-driven transformation of surgical education. In the most recent call, four additional flagships were approved in precision oncology, prevention of type 2 diabetes and personalised brain health interventions – domains with high potential impact on quality of life, healthcare and value creation.

At the “Marketplace of Ideas”, we will show how the Flagship Initiative leverages large, transdisciplinary consortia to enable systemic innovation, generating tangible value for the Swiss economy and society.

Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW)

SATW identifies the needs of Switzerland as an innovation hub, and introduces two forward-looking topics at the point where science and policy intersect: talents and technology. It is committed to evidence-based support for women and girls in MINT subjects and addresses structural barriers along the education and career pipeline. It also highlights relevant technological developments and future skills requirements at an early stage with “Technology Outlook”. SATW’s market stall invites dialogue and networking between science, economy, politics and public administration.

Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ)

The ETH Policy Fellowship is a customised ETH Zurich programme for executives employed in the public sector and is intended to intensify dialogue and networking between politics, government and science. With an eye on knowledge transfer to benefit society, ETH Zurich hopes this service will contribute to networking between decision-makers and scientists. In this way, the programme will help politicians and governments to address political challenges with sustainable, effective and efficient solutions based on firm evidence. As a result of discussions with the organisers and alumni, attendees at the Swiss Research and Innovation Summit SRIS’26 gained insights into this service, the only one in Switzerland, at the interface between science and politics.

Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS)

The Federal Institute for Metrology METAS shows how traceability, measuring uncertainty and acceptance intervals make political decisions reliably fair and trustworthy. Using distorted electric network signals, it becomes apparent why metrological research is crucial for regulation to continue to function in a digital world.

Switzerland Innovation

Switzerland Innovation is a network of innovation parks across Switzerland, enabling both international and domestic companies, alongside world-leading Swiss universities, to collaborate on the development of new, market-ready products and services. In and around our 16 locations across Switzerland, vibrant innovation ecosystems have been carefully nurtured, attracting companies, SMEs, start-ups, and researchers from around the world.
At our booth, we showcase how companies and projects have established a presence within Switzerland Innovation Parks and leverage this unique environment to accelerate innovation and bring ideas to market. Switzerland Innovation illustrates how political commitment to research, openness, and public–private collaboration is sustainably translated into practice.

swissuniversities

The two posters presented by swissuniversities summarise the work being done by the national task force on security of knowledge.

1. Understand and classify

2. Act and debate

« As open as possible, as secure as necessary. »

swissuniversities is going to articulate the challenges of open-mindedness and security, present a joint diagnosis and suggest a pragmatic approach on three fronts, accompanied by a route map and a model for governance.

The first poster presents the geopolitical context, definition and risks of the Swiss system, and offers a diagnosis.

The second poster emphasises the task force’s recommendations, the route map for 2026–2028+ and the roles of the various players.

The posters are designed to promote dialogue with attendees at the Swiss Research and Innovation Summit SRIS’26 in order to identify the conditions for implementation and potential obstacles. 

TA-Swiss

On behalf of the Swiss Parliament, TA-SWISS, the Swiss Foundation for Technology Assessment, analyses technological trends as quickly as possible and assesses the consequences of new technologies from a wide social perspective. In the process TA-SWISS focuses on dialogue between science, society and politics and devises objective bases in support of democratic decision-making and knowledge-based decisions. 

We illustrate these efforts to promote dialogue to attendees of the Swiss Research and Innovation Summit SRIS’26 using the TA study on deepfakes, i.e. images, sound and video recordings generated using AI. Deepfakes have the ability to influence people’s opinions and political processes in Switzerland. At the same time they form part of freedom of expression, which is a central pillar of democracy, and AI content is a new method of participating in this freedom of expression. We provide information about the study’s online experiment that shows the difficulty in detecting deepfakes and the implication of this for Swiss politics.

Swiss National Science Foundation – National Research Programmes (NRPs)

One of the greatest threats to global health is resistance to antibiotics. The Confederation and Swiss National Fund have launched several research initiatives in this field. These bodies are in constant dialogue with the competent Federal agencies. This has resulted, for example, in the creation of the Swiss Centre for Antibiotics Resistance (ANRESIS), or support for the current StAR One Health Action Plan (2024–2027). This cooperation is representative of the successful interaction between fundamental research, problem-solving research, politics and the government.

Swiss National Science Foundation – National Research Programmes (NRPs)

Various national research programmes are devoted to resources and the issue of their sustainable use and management. The focus is on “Wood” (NRP 66), “Soil” (NRP 68), “Energy” (NRP 70/ NRP 71) as resources, as well as a “Sustainable economy” (NRP 73). There are many connections and complex interactions. Continuous frank dialogue is required between industry, research, the government and politicians to address the concomitant social, economic and ecological challenges.

Swiss National Science Foundation – National Research Programmes (NRPs)

The exceptional circumstances of the Covid pandemic were a touchstone for the intersection between science, politics and the government. These experiences gave rise to a national scientific advice network.

Expertise and findings derived from the ad hoc “Covid” (NRP 78) and “Covid-19 in Society” (NRP 80) national research programmes are incorporated into their work, as is the latest update to the Swiss Pandemic Plan.

Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAHS)

The SAHS Institute’s Année Politique Suisse (APS) is the ideal representation of dialogue between science, politics and society in humanities and social science disciplines: APS will present itself as a platform for scientifically prepared, independent information about political events in Switzerland to attendees at the Swiss Research and Innovation Summit SRIS’26.

National Science Advice Network

Launched in 2025, the National Science Advice Network brings together highly qualified researchers who provide politicians and authorities with their independent and interdisciplinary expertise. Supported by the most important institutions in education and research, the network strengthens the exchange between science, politics and administration, even outside times of crisis. Clusters have already been formed on the following topics: public health, cyber security, international challenges and disinformation.

Swiss Science Council

The Swiss Science Council is the Federal Council’s independent, interdisciplinary body of experts, working towards a strategically focussed Swiss education, research and innovation system.

For the artificial intelligence (AI) on which SSC is focussing, the Council established that in order to ensure internationally competitive research on and using AI, Switzerland needs an effective national IT infrastructure with international connections. To achieve this, the Council proposes a tiered system of local to international IT infrastructures, embedded in a national strategy, financed long term, and managed by a strategic board.

Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT)

Over decades the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) has developed a functioning model for dialogue with politics and society. It is based on networking between experts throughout Switzerland and from various disciplines on socially relevant topics. Through these networks SCNAT prepares knowledge summaries on topical questions and conveys these through dialogue and communication. This generates profound momentum in politics, the economy and society, which is fed back to science. The core topics of political dialogue are energy, biodiversity, climate change, the countryside, genetic engineering, sustainability, and quantum research and engineering.

Geneva Science Policy Interface (GSPI)

The GSPI Marketplace booth will offer tangible, real-world examples of how scientific expertise contributes to policy and society at the international level, directly supporting the objectives of the Swiss Research and Innovation Summit SRIS’26 and enriching conference discussions with practical insights.

The GSPI Marketplace booth will showcase selected projects from the Impact Collaboration Programme (ICP) as concrete examples of science–policy interaction at the multilateral level in Geneva.

The objectives are to:

• Demonstrate the value and impact of ICP-supported projects

• Highlight lessons learned and challenges in international SPI initiatives

• Engage national and international SPI actors in dialogue on opportunities for collaboration.

Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS)

The SAMS' medical-ethical guidelines support healthcare professionals in their practice, benefit society as a whole, and also have legal significance. Sensitive topics such as assisted suicide or triage in medicine are often the subject of parliamentary interventions. The SAMS advises politicians and authorities with its expertise and its large network, which is firmly rooted in practice.