Switzerland

NST Research and Funding

Research in Switzerland is funded by universities and academic institutions primarily at the state (cantonal) level, the two federal institutes of technology (ETH Zurich and ETH Lausanne), private corporations and foundations, and two federal funding institutions: the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) for basic research, and the Commission for Technology and Innovation (KTI) for development-oriented research. The SNF launched a national research program in the chemistry and physics of surfaces in 1988. This program led to the first coordinated federal funding for the various Swiss nanoscale research groups. When the Swiss Association of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology was established in 1993, the field included around 200 researchers. In 1997, the SNF launched a new series of national research programs, among which nanoscience was funded for three years with 15 million Swiss francs. The program aimed at establishing nanoscience as an independent research field and mainly focused on basic research.

With the launch of three funding initiatives in 2000 and 2001, NST was established as leading research and development area in Switzerland. In 2000, the ETH-Rat, a governmental supervisory and steering committee for the federal institutes of technology, together with the KTI initiated the program TOP NANO 21. This program focused on R&D and encouraged university-industrial collaborations as well as university grant applications, spin-offs and start-ups. Around 250 projects were funded with a budget of 60 million Swiss francs for three years. The same year, the national research program on nanoscience was renewed for another three years under the name Supramolecular Functional Materials with a budget of 15 million Swiss francs.

In 2001, the SNF initiated a new funding initiative for National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR), which aim at building up long-term programs. The NCCR for Nanoscale Sciences was established at the University of Basel with an annual budget of 16 mil-liong Swiss francs, including 13 research institutions and around 50 projects. When the program ended in 2008 the leading center was transformed into the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI). In 2008, the ETH-Rat initiated the Nano-Tera program with a budget of 120 million Swiss francs. This program will focus on embedded systems in health, security, and the environment.

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