Swiss Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity starts work

The Swiss Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity (SCCSI) commenced work on 1 January 2026. It was initiated by the Swiss Higher Education Conference (SHK) and its Council Office is administratively attached to the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. The Council Office, managed by Viviane Premand, PhD in Law, LL.M., a lawyer, specialist in scientific consultancy, will be responsible for carrying out and promoting the tasks of the Competence Centre in the Swiss higher education sector in conjunction with the Council for Scientific Integrity set up by the SHK as a standing committee of the Higher Education Council. Members of the Council for Scientific Integrity:

• Prof. em. Edwin Constable, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Basel (President)

• Prof. ass. Christine Clavien, Associate Professor, Institute for Ethics, History and the Humanities, University of Geneva (Vice-President) 

• Prof. em. Matthias Egger, Emeritus Professor at the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern

• Prof. em. Bernhard Ehrenzeller, Emeritus Professor for Public Law at the University of St. Gallen

• Dr Sabine Chai, Managing Director of the Austrian Agency for Research Integrity (ÖAWI).

SCCSI tasks and competences

The Swiss Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity (SCCSI) will serve as the national reporting and advisory agency for issues relating to scientific integrity, and also support and advise the higher education institutions and other institutions in the higher education sector in Switzerland on scientific integrity, best practices and international developments. Its tasks devolve from the 2021 Code of conduct for scientific integrity published by the Swiss Academies for Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Innosuisse and swissuniversities. The Swiss Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity will also maintain contact with the bodies responsible for scientific integrity in the institutions and promote the development and dissemination of good scientific practices. The SCCSI will play a decisive role in reporting and monitoring of procedures and in supporting the institutions, but will not act as an investigative or sanctioning body, will not conduct any proceedings and will not an appeal body. The power to take any measures against fallible researchers will remain with the higher education institutions. As a reporting office for the higher education institutions and other institutions of the higher education sector, the SCCSI will also record reported proceedings, sanctions and measures on the observance of scientific integrity, thus creating a comprehensive overview of the situation in the whole of Switzerland. It will issue reports on its activities for the Higher Education Council and the public.

Edwin Constable, the first President of the Council for Scientific Integrity, stresses: “Compliance with the rules of scientific integrity represents a globally recognised benchmark for research institutions. Scientific integrity ensures the reliability of research findings, painstaking data collection and the responsibility of authors of scientific publications. The new Competence Centre will be committed to further strengthening the principles of scientific integrity in Switzerland.”