The United States offers a cautionary tale of how a leading science nation can face abrupt disruption. Switzerland has an opportunity to decisively strengthen its own science leadership through ambitious investment and deeper international collaboration. We must seize it.
Opinion editorial by Christophe Dessimoz, SIB Executive Director
The upheaval currently affecting the US research environment, with abrupt funding withdrawals, staff dismissals, and key agency dismantlement, has been deeply unsettling to witness. While the situation in Switzerland is not nearly as severe, we are facing two major threats which could harm national science: deep budget cuts to education, research and innovation, and the potential breakdown of scientific collaboration with Europe if voters reject Bilateral Agreement III. Now is time to act by solidifying our leadership, particularly in the data infrastructure and expertise that drive innovation, economic strength, sovereignty, and well-being.
Switzerland’s data expertise and infrastructure are strategic resources
Switzerland’s innovation and competitive success is rooted in its ability to turn scientific data into economic and social value. One crucial part of this process is often overlooked: the expertise and infrastructure that transform raw data into trustworthy, accessible knowledge and enable the generation of useful insights.
SIB provides these strategic resources to the life sciences as the organization of reference for biological and biomedical data in Switzerland. Two examples in particular highlight this vital contribution to national well-being and competitiveness.
The first is Switzerland’s exemplary real-time decision-making during COVID-19, which relied on standardized data provided by SIB and other open databases, plus expert analyses of virus spread and evolution using software tools developed by SIB scientists. These included expert knowledge on coronaviruses from UniProt and ViralZone, protein structure predictions from SWISS-MODEL that informed vaccine design, data gathering and analysis enabled by the Swiss Pathogen Survelliance Platform, and real-time variant tracking through Nextstrain. Behind these capabilities were years of sustained investment in curated data and infrastructure – largely invisible during the crisis, yet essential to its management.
The second example is the Swiss life science industry, where UniProt – the world’s leading source of protein data and knowledge, co-developed by SIB since 1998 – underpins innovation, as reflected in over 5,800 patent filings by Swiss entities ranging from start-ups to global companies like Roche and Novartis.
These and other long-term investments in SIB additionally enhance Switzerland’s reputation for scientific excellence, quality, and stability. They also make the country a trusted partner for cross-border partnerships, bring in international funding, help attract and retain talent, and give our small nation a powerful voice in shaping data infrastructure and research in Europe and further afield – all of which feed directly into Swiss resilience and prosperity.
The Swiss innovation ecosystem is under pressure
Clearly then, data infrastructure and expertise are not a ‘nice-to-have’ but essential to national innovation ecosystems. Countries that invest in this ecosystem will continue to prosper on many levels, including economically. Those that undermine science and innovation risk falling behind.
This is exactly the risk Switzerland faces now.
Federal funding constraints already limit Swiss science; in SIB’s case, the ability to develop additional databases, software tools, and strategic activities to further support research, innovation, and solutions to global issues. Our country is also affected by this year’s massive cuts to US science funding which, along with research projects at other Swiss institutions, threaten data infrastructure essential for global collaboration such as the international Pathogen Data Network we coordinate, and UniProt mentioned earlier.
The proposed cuts to federal funding for education, research, and innovation (ERI) in Relief Package 27 would further jeopardize Swiss science and the long-term sustainability of national data infrastructure and expertise – with damaging knock-on effects to Switzerland’s competitiveness, sovereignty and well-being.
Fragile ties with Europe threaten Swiss sovereignty
One bright point is Switzerland’s readmission this year into the EU’s research and innovation funding programme, Horizon Europe, following the negotiation of Bilateral Agreement III. But this is tenuous. If voters reject the agreement in a referendum, our country will once again lose this vital source of funding along with opportunities for attracting talent and participating in European collaborations.
Some argue that deeper EU ties threaten Swiss sovereignty. In fact, the opposite is true. Strategic participation in European frameworks enhances our sovereignty, by allowing Switzerland to shape international policies and standards that will influence our economic and scientific future rather than being subject to these from the outside. Close collaboration with our closest allies also strengthens Swiss trade, security, and knowledge exchange, all of which reinforce our independence, not compromise it.
If voters reject Bilateral Agreement III in a referendum, our country will once again lose Horizon Europe funding along with opportunities for attracting talent and participating in European collaborations
Switzerland must continue the path of science leadership
Switzerland consistently places at the top of global rankings for innovation and talent, and among the top three for competitiveness. To maintain and build on these enviable strengths, we must ensure the country’s continued science leadership – including in data expertise and infrastructure. Indeed, the provision of these strategic data resources by SIB and others is ever-more important in today’s era of artificial intelligence and the need for data-driven solutions to health and environmental challenges.
What can Swiss stakeholders do? I encourage:
- all political parties to increase ERI funding, including support for data infrastructures, and support ratification of Bilateral Agreement III;
- the private sector to speak out against threats to national science and data infrastructure;
- academic institutions to include data expertise and infrastructure in their advocacy for sustainable science funding;
- the public to support policies and leaders that prioritize science and international cooperation as the foundation of long-term well-being.
We are standing at a crossroads. Switzerland has the opportunity to decisively forge ahead on a science leadership path. We must take it.
