For a solid science
SCNAT is committed to an efficient Swiss scientific system that serves society. It strengthens the exchange among the key players in science, raises awareness of the ethical responsibility of science and draws up guidelines for scientific work and its use.
News
SCNAT is committed here
Contact
Dr. Stefan Nussbaum
Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT)
House of Academies
PO Box
3001 Bern
Switzerland
Gender diversity and equality remain a challenge in higher positions in the Natural Sciences. The first webinar provides facts and figures on the current situation as well as a historical perspective.
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Critical times call for changes in the way leadership is expressed and implemented. This webinar will discuss value systems across gender, social status and ethnic diversity and the contribution of women to better outcomes in leadership styles, group dynamics and crisis management.
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While gender is socially constructed or influenced, men and women also differ because of pre-existing neurobiological differences, which it would be non-scientific to disregard.
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Underrepresentation of women in the STEM fields (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) is more pronounced in more gender-equal countries. This is part of the gender-equality paradox, a well-established phenomenon – yet counterintuitive –, where differences between men and women tend to grow as countries become more developed and gender-equal.
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Solutions that can help mitigate the social loss of the academic leaky pipeline include recruitment practices at institutions of higher education and research or flexible child care. Recruitment regulation, quality control and important issues to promote women with children in leading positions will be discussed.
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The allocation of financial support for research by academic institutions or by funding agencies may have a major impact on gender equality in science and research. This webinar explores the potential and limitations of gender quota in the recruitment and financial support of women in academia.
The term “excellence” is extensively used in academic research to justify and target funding and recruitment decisions and policies. In this webinar, we invite our participants to an open critique of the concept of excellence. The Better Science Initiative calls for a rethink in academia towards more sustainability, diversity and equal opportunities.
Women who have attained leading positions may on their career path have been confronted with specific, gender related challenges. During the panel discussion, female professors and leaders will inform about their career path. They will include highlights and motivation of their career, the hurdles that they have encountered, and their solutions to overcome them. The interviews will address the significance of individual versus institutional and societal boundary conditions. Finally, the webinar aims to present experienced leaders to inspire young female scientists.
Female junior and advanced scientists, yet without a permanent position, share their experiences and their expectations regarding gender equality and diversity. They will present their career path and indicate highlights and hurdles of their professional development. During the panel discussion individual experiences as well as the role of institutional and societal boundary conditions will be addressed.
The body's own defence against urinary tract infections, a new method for quantifying and determining genetic damage, evidence in so-called Diophantine geometry and the question of how soot from combustion processes influences the formation of clouds and thus, the climate – the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) is awarding the Prix Schläfli 2021 to the four most important insights of young researchers at Swiss universities. Claudia Aloisi (Chemistry), Gabriel Dill (Mathematics), Fabian Mahrt (Geosciences) and Gregor Weiss (Biology) receive the prize for findings in their dissertations. The Prix Schläfli is awarded annually to the four best dissertations in the natural sciences. This prize was first awarded as early as 1866.
Wie viele andere Organisationen forderte die Covid-19-Pandemie im vergangenen Jahr auch die SCNAT. Trotzdem all die Projekte zu realisieren, brauchte viel Kreativität und Anpassungsfähigkeit. Dabei entstanden innovative Formate, um die zahlreichen Veranstaltungen und Aktivitäten durchführen zu können. Der Jahresbericht 2020 gibt Ihnen einen Eindruck davon.
The federal government is promoting an improved access to natural science collections with a total amount of CHF 12.37 million until 2024. The digitised collections provide unique data for climate, biodiversity or agricultural research, for example. To this end, the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) has launched the Swiss Natural History Collections Network, SwissCollNet, to collaborate with museums, universities, and botanical gardens in laying the foundations for the digitisation and long-term management and use of the collections.
Für aktuelle und zukünftige Herausforderungen wie den Rückbau von Kernkraftwerken benötigt die Schweiz Fachwissen zur Erforschung und Anwendung radioaktiver Stoffe. Mittelfristig zeichnet sich jedoch ein Mangel an Expertinnen und Experten ab. Gemeinsam mit verschiedenen Organisationen aus der Wissenschaft hat die Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz das Weissbuch Radiochemie Schweiz erarbeitet. Dieses zeigt Massnahmen zur Sicherung und Weiterentwicklung des erforderlichen Fachwissens auf. Mit der Schaffung einer neuen Professur haben die ETH Zürich und das Paul-Scherrer-Institut bereits einen wichtigen ersten Schritt gemacht.
Academia today is characterised by unhealthy competition, publication pressure and quantification practices. This puts people in research in the background. We want to counteract this and call for the enabling of reflected innovation and creativity in a slow science.
Diese Woche erscheint der neue COSPAR-Bericht, der eine Übersicht über die Schweizer Aktivitäten rund um das Thema Weltraum gibt. Renato Krpoun, Leiter der Abteilung Raumfahrt (auch Swiss Space Office genannt) des Staatssekretariats für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation SBFI, nimmt dazu Stellung und betont dabei die Bedeutung der Zusammenarbeit von Wissenschaft und Industrie.
The Swiss space research community is very active and a reliable partner in space research activities. On the occasion of the 43rd COSPAR Assembly in Sydney, Australia, the Swiss National Committee on Space Research takes this opportunity to report on its activities to the international community.
The We Scientists 2035 workshops were initiated by SCNAT to call upon researchers to re-imagine a better, healthier research culture.
The results of my discussions at the «We Scientists 2035» workshop revealed that one of the problems with scientific culture widely experienced by participants, is growing pressure. The workshop this year in Lausanne, organized by the Swiss Academy of Sciences, brought together natural scientists from different career stages to discuss novel ideas about research culture and generate concrete actions for how it might be improved.
Das Wissenschaftssystem wächst, denn Produktivität wird belohnt. Was in der Wirtschaft sinnvoll sein kann, führt in der Wissenschaft zu Fehlanreizen. Die Qualität wissenschaftlicher Ergebnisse kann teils nicht mehr ausreichend gesichert werden. Gerade in Zeiten von Fake News darf das Vertrauen in die Wissenschaft aber nicht gefährdet werden. Die Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften und die Akademie der Naturwissenschaften plädieren in einer eben veröffentlichten Publikation für Qualität vor Quantität.
Swiss Young Academy
The Swiss Young Academy offers early-career researchers the opportunity to carry out inter- and transdisciplinary projects. With their commitment and contributions, its members strive to identify societal challenges at an early stage, offer solutions to these challenges and promote dialogue between science and society. The Swiss Young Academy was launched by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, to which the SCNAT belongs.