Education Policy

The summer session of the National Council and Council of States begins on 31 May. Interesting for the ETH Domain are the popular initiative "Yes to the ban on animal and human experimentation", debates on the relationship between science and politics, and a motion calling for campaigns against harassment at the two Federal Institutes of Technology.

Parliament kept us in suspense once more during spring session. The ETH Act required a conciliation committee to reach a compromise between the National Council and the Council of States. On the other hand, the issue of the popular initiative "Yes to the ban on experiments on animals and humans" was clear: all parliamentary groups in the National Council rejected the proposal.

Education and research are not the focus of the spring session of the Federal Parliament. However, with the popular initiative to ban animal and human experimentation and the latest differences in the ETH Law, exciting discussions are scheduled that directly affect Switzerland as a centre of research and the ETH Domain.

During its winter session, the Federal Parliament adopted the ERI Dispatch 2021-2024. Some CHF 10.8 billion will be allocated to the ETH Domain. The Federal Parliament also approved funds for the full association of Switzerland to the Horizon Europe research and innovation framework programme.

In its winter session (30 November – 18 December 2020), the Federal Parliament will deal with various matters of great importance to the ETH Domain: it will debate the ETH Law, the budget of the ETH Domain and the Swiss contribution to the EU research programme Horizon Europe.