Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft State Secretariat for Education and Research SER Confédération suisse Swiss Knowledge Network Confederazione Svizzera Confederaziun svizra Science-Switzerland, February - March 2014 News on Swiss science, technology, education and innovation Table of Contents 1. Policy ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Education ............................................................................................................................................................................... 3 3. Life Science / Health Care ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 4. Nano / Micro Technology / Material Science ........................................................................................................................ 11 5. Information & Communications Technology ......................................................................................................................... 12 6. Energy / Environment ........................................................................................................................................................... 14 7. Engineering / Robotics / Space ............................................................................................................................................ 17 8. Physics / Chemistry / Math ................................................................................................................................................... 19 9. Architecture / Design ............................................................................................................................................................ 20 10. Economy, Social Sciences & Humanities ............................................................................................................................. 21 11. Technology Transfer / IPR / Patents .................................................................................................................................... 22 12. General Interest.................................................................................................................................................................... 23 13. Calls for Grants/Awards ....................................................................................................................................................... 23 Upcoming Science and Technology Related Events .................................................................................................................... 25 swissnex Brazil Officially Opened (NZZ, March 31, 2014) Federal Councilor Johann N. Schneider-Ammann, head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER), has visited Brazil from 3 to 5 April in order to strengthen economic relations and intensify scientific exchange with Latin America by opening the first swissnex on the continent. Brazil, which is a strategically important partner for Switzerland in Latin America, will now host the sixth swissnex worldwide. Brazil is the optimal location for the novel swissnex as it is the world's sev- enth largest economy and Switzerland's main trading partner in Latin America ahead of Mexico and Argentina. Brazil is also an important strategic partner in education, research and innovation (ERI) as the country's investment in research and development has grown by approximately 75% in real terms since 2000. http://swissinnovation.org/news/web/2014/00-140331-68 Ranking: Switzerland Leads Innovation in Europe (startupticker, March 06, 2014) Switzerland retains its position as European innovation leader, based on the European Commission's Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) 2014 and the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2014. The IUS draws on 25 different indicators, divided into three broad ar- eas: Enablers, Firm activities and Outputs. Switzerland outperforms all EU member states on nine indicators, especially Open, excellent and attractive research systems (top on all three indicators) and Economic effects (top on two indicators – Employment in knowledge-intensive activities and License and patent revenues from abroad). However, it performs below EU average on SMEs collaborating with others (9.4% compared to 11.7% for the EU) and Ex- ports of knowledge-intensive services (25.1% as compared to 45.3% for the EU). http://swissinnovation.org/news/web/2014/00-140306-9b Switzerland Ranks First In International Universities (Times Higher Education, February 01, 2014) A ranking of universities according to “international outlook” has been published by Times Higher Education. Swiss Universities occupy four of the top ten spots, including the first three. Two other Swiss universities also appear in the list of 100. EPFL is ranked first in the list. Factors used in measuring “international outlook” include the proportions of international students and faculty, and the proportion of research publications having at least one author from another country. The high ranking of Swiss universities, re- markable considering the small population of the country, may reflect the attractiveness of Switzerland as a place to live and work. http://swissinnovation.org/news/web/2014/00-140201-12 Science-Switzerland, News on Swiss science, technology, education and innovation Page 1 of 26 Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft State Secretariat for Education and Research SER Confédération suisse Swiss Knowledge Network Confederazione Svizzera Confederaziun svizra Ranking: Switzerland is #1 for Patent Filings per Capita (SERI, March 14, 2014) Switzerland has topped the list for patent fillings per million inhabitants for the year 2013 with 832 applications. It precedes countries as Germany (6), Japan (9) and the United States of America (15), countries that are found in the top 10 of total European patent fillings in 2013. With 24% the US is the most active country in filling patents at the Euro- pean Patent Office (EPO), followed by Japan, Germany and China. From the Swiss countries ABB filed the largest number of patent applications with 455 patents, followed by Nestlé (435), Alstom (367), Roche (360) and Novartis (281). http://swissinnovation.org/news/web/2014/00-140314-df Participants for the Swiss National Startup Team Announced (startupticker, March 20, 2014) Venturelab and swissnex Boston have recently selected 20 young and promising entrepreneurs who will join the Swiss National Startup Team for the venture leaders program this June. The participants, who were chosen out of 120 contenders, are going to a 10-day business development training based in the U.S. In particular, they will be visiting Boston and New York, which will be the first time, to try to set foot on the U.S. market with their high-tech startups. The venture leaders’ alumni address global challenges in a wide range of fields with their innovations ranging from recovering paraplegic patients’ locomotion to insect-inspired micro-drones. http://swissinnovation.org/news/web/2014/00-140320-03 15 Swiss Finalists for Red Herring's Europe Top 100 Award (startupticker, March 24, 2014) At the end of March Red Herring published the list of finalists for its "Europe Top 100" Award, among which 15 Swiss start-ups are represented. The Top 100 Europe forum monitors hundreds of cutting edge companies and technologies and select those who are positioned to grow at high speed. The promising private technology ven- tures have been evaluated through quantitative and qualitative criteria as well as a review of their actual track rec- ord and standing. The finalists from Switzerland include ActLight, Covagen, dacadoo, EDSI-Tech, Faveeo SA, Hoosh Technology, Newscron SA, Nexthink, Pitcher, ROMO Wind, Run my Accounts AG, SGP Technologies SA (Blackphone), Starmind International, TallyFox, Teralytics. http://swissinnovation.org/news/web/2014/00-140324-b4 Humboldt Prize Goes to Swiss Paleontologist (Natural History Museum Bern, February 10, 2014) The Swiss paleontologist Achim Reisdorf from the Natural History Museum Bern has successfully vitiated the myth of manure gas induced exploding cadavers, therewith winning the Alexander von Humboldt Prize. A question that many paleontologists have been asking themselves has always been why the bones of entire dinosaur skeletons are often distributed over a wide area. An accepted explanation had long been that the manure gases inside the cadavers would build up a pressure big enough to expel the bones from the body when exploding. However, Achim Reisdorf and a team of researchers from the forensic medicine could verify that the pressure buildup is not big enough to have such dramatic effects and instead the currents in the sea where responsible for the bone dispersal. http://swissinnovation.org/news/web/2014/00-140210-7b 1. Policy Highly Ranked Swiss International Cooperation (Federal Administration, February 11, 2014) The quality and effectiveness of Swiss international cooperation are recognized in the latest country review by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Switzerland. The increase in official devel- opment assistance adopted by the Swiss Parliament, bringing it up to 0.5% of gross national income by 2015, is in the eyes of the OECD a major achievement in this period of international financial turmoil. At the