New structure of presidency of actionuni

Internal

Last week, on 6 April,  actionuni held its yearly assembly of delegates. Amongst other business, the board was elected, seeing some old and new faces.

Carla Duss (PH Lucerne) and Andrea Tamas (ZHAW) were confirmed as co-presidents; additionally SAR-representative Florian Lippke (University of Fribourg) was elected as co-president. The change to having three instead of two co-presidents was initiated by the board and acknowledges the importance to always represent the three types of universities in Switzerland.

Continue reading New structure of presidency of actionuni →

actionuni meets with swissuniversities, VSS and swissfaculty

Events

Last week, three members of the board of actionuni were invited to a meeting with the new president of swissuniversities, Prof. Dr. Michael Hengartner, the secretary general and vice secretary general of swissuniversities, Dr. Martina Weiss and Dr. Sabine Felder, as well as representatives of VSS and swissfaculty.

We had an open brainstorming about topics that could be of common interest and should therefore be pursued jointly in the future. Moreover, we addressed the issue that actionuni is not represented in any of swissuniversities’ commitees .

The following important issues where we prospectively should work together were identified:

  • political statements
  • commitment for a Switzerlands integration into the European research and innovation area
  • exchange about career options for young researchers

The federal message on education, research and innovation policy has been published

Press release, Resources and documents, SBFI

The BFI-Botschaft / message FRI / messaggio ERI has been defined on 25 February 2016 by the Federal Council. According to the government, in the next four years investments in research and education shall  grow 2%, which is significantly less than in the previous period. This is stated in the federal message on education, research and innovation policy for the years 2017-2010 (BFI-Botschaft), which was passed on 24th February. Back in November 2015, in the course of the stabilisation programm for the national finances 2017-2019 which is currently being negotiated, growth in investments had already been reduced from 3.2 to 2.2 %.  According to a response by swissuniversities, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the ETHs and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences this puts the role of Switzerland in the area of research, education and innovation into jeopardy at a moment in time in which the country threatens to lose its access to European research programmes. The total budget projected for research and education amounts to 26 billion CHF. Continue reading The federal message on education, research and innovation policy has been published →

actionuni warns against admission of the “Durchsetzungsinitiative”

Press release

Two years after the vote on immigration restriction, the Swiss Institutions of Higher Education warn against the consequences of the enforcement initiative, which will come to the vote on 28th February 2016. They publish a joint declaration dedicated to keeping Switzerland in the centre of a European environment of research and education.

swissuniversities warns against the dire consequences for Swiss education and research if the EU, in a worst case scenario, should make use of their option to cancel all bilateral agreements at once – among them the one that ensures scientific and technological cooperation. This would mean the definitive exclusion of Switzerland from the Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+ programmes. Continue reading actionuni warns against admission of the “Durchsetzungsinitiative” →

Annual meeting with representatives of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

Events

In November 2015, a delegation of the board of actionuni met with representatives of SNSF. The very positive exchange focused on:

  • the impact of financial austerity in Switzerland on the funding of research,
  • access of researchers of Universities of Applied Sciences and Universities of Teacher Education to SNSF funding,
  • the future of academic careers,
  • permeability of SNSF funded and University funded career paths,
  • conditions of employment non-professorial academic staff
  • academic independence of non-professorial academic staff
  • funding of interdisciplinary research of non-professorial academic staff, and
  • the flexibility of SNSF-instruments for researcher with families.