News
Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences a+
Using experience gained from the pandemic for the future
What role did science play in managing the Covid-19 pandemic from January to December 2020? In what way did the Swiss experience differ from selected other countries? Where is there a need for action in the future? The first comprehensive study on the role of science in the Covid-19 pandemic policy response shows a positive track record but also identifies a need for optimization.
Swiss Young Academy SYA
Blog
Bridging research and practice
He brings together people from within and beyond academia – with the aim of helping us respond more effectively to climate change. Benjamin Hofmann is a researcher at ETH Zurich’s TdLab. As a member of the Swiss Young Academy, teaching is particularly important to him.
Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences SATW
News
More Swiss research in space: Florian Kehl on the development of space missions at ETH Zurich
Four telescopes that must maintain a stable focus on extremely faint galaxies for an exceptionally long time, and detectors that remain at a constant temperature of around –130 degrees Celsius throughout: the ARRAKIHS space telescope has been built to the very limits of what is technically possible. In June 2026, the European Space Agency (ESA) gave the go-ahead for the mission – with a Swiss contribution for which Florian Kehl was responsible until the end of 2025. To ensure that such contributions do not remain isolated cases, in addition to high-quality research, we need structures, streamlined processes and people who can get entire missions off the ground. This is precisely what Kehl is working on today as Director of Space Research Initiatives at ETH Zurich | Space. In an interview with SATW, he explains what makes ARRAKIHS so technically challenging, just how competitive Switzerland really is when it comes to securing leadership roles in European missions, and why, in his view, the search for extraterrestrial life might be on the verge of yielding an answer.
News
Article on the SWEET programme published
The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) commissioned science journalist Benedikt Vogel to write an article on the public funding programme SWEET (SWiss Energy research for the Energy Transition).