Working Programme
The Swiss Science Council SSC is the advisory body of the Federal Council for issues related to science, higher education, research and innovation policy. It formulates a working programme for each legislative period, in coordination with the agenda of the political authorities. In addition to setting its own priorities, the Council retains the flexibility to respond to demands from the Federal Council.
- The Working Programme 2024-2027
- Research Libraries as Data Hubs
The Swiss Science Council (SSC) is focusing its work program on how education, research, and innovation (ERI) can effectively contribute to overcoming current and future societal challenges. The focus is on whether the existing framework conditions are sufficient to develop solutions to global problems such as climate change or technological upheavals, and how these goals can be reconciled with competitiveness, economic growth, and international cooperation.
For the 2024-2027 term of office, the SSC is focusing on current challenges: artificial intelligence, particularly in healthcare, closing the gap between climate change and action, and further developing doctoral training to prepare students for a variety of professional roles.
Another focus is on the governance of the ERI system in a national and international context. Strengths, success mechanisms, and weaknesses are analyzed, particularly in research funding, at universities of applied sciences, and in the transfer of knowledge and personnel to the labor market.
Looking to the future, the SSC is examining the role of digitized research libraries, the impact of departmental research, and new funding instruments in a third priority area.
In addition, it is evaluating central funding structures on behalf of the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation in order to further improve their efficiency and impact.
Working group
Council: Susanna Burghartz (Chair), Dominique Foray, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Sectretariat: Joël Graf (Project leader), Sibylle Niklaus (Deputy Project Manager oder Project Collaborator)
Mandat
Mandat to: Prof. Dr. J. Philipp Trein (Université de Lausanne), Dr. Ana Petrus (scivia GmbH)
Duration of the project:
01.06.2024 - 08.12.2025
Research libraries (RL) are an essential infrastructure for science. They play a crucial role in knowledge production and their university's competitiveness. Over the last thirty years, RL have had to cope with two disruptive developments of the digital transformation: the transition from analogue to digital holdings and Open Access as the new standard for publicly funded scholarly publications. Today, generative AI presents a new challenge.
Against this background, the SSC is addressing the question of how the services provided by research libraries and the framework conditions can be secured and improved for the future. The analysis is based on expert interviews, a stakeholder workshop and two external mandates with a focus on multilevel governance and international good practices. On this basis, the SSC formulates guiding principles and specific recommendations.
In this project, the term “research library” refers mainly to academic libraries at Higher Education Institutions. This includes cantonal universities, Universities of Applied Sciences, Universities of Teacher Educations as well as the ETH domain.