A national perspective that reflects global trends
An ETH Professor has recently taken on a key role in Swiss scientific policy: since January 2016, Gerd Folkers has been President of the Swiss Science and Innovation Council (SSIC).
At the beginning of the year, Gerd Folkers, ETH Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and long-serving Chair of Collegium Helveticum, was appointed the new President of the Swiss Science and Innovation Council, a post that he will hold for four years. The SSIC advises the government on policy matters relating to science, higher education, research and innovation. Gerd Folkers has been a member of the SSIC since 2012 and previously served as its Vice President. He follows in the footsteps of Astrid Epiney, SSIC President from 2012 to 2015 and now Rector of the University of Freiburg.
As SSIC President, Folkers wants to work with “fellow members of the SSIC to re-examine future scenarios and review established structures,” he writes on the SSIC website. For Folkers, science’s main contribution to innovation, namely the search for genuinely new knowledge, is gravely undermined by false incentives and excessively utilitarian expectations.
Starting from a “national perspective that takes global developments into account”, Folkers and the Council want to continuously enhance the Swiss learning, research and innovation framework.
Since 1 January 2016, Gerd Folkers has also been head of the ETH-wide Critical Thinking Initiative and thus responsible for the initiative’s development. On 31 December 2015, he handed over the reins of Collegium Helveticum to Thomas Hengartner, Professor of Ethnology at the University of Zurich.