Work launched on the 2027 Roadmap for Research Infrastructures

Every four years, SERI draws up the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures report. This is a strategic planning instrument providing an overview of the status and development of the national and international research infrastructures in which Switzerland is involved. It is also one of the bases on which the Dispatch on the Promotion of Education, Research and Innovation (ERI Dispatch) is drawn up. SERI compiles the report on the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures in conjunction with the ETH Board, the Swiss Conference of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions swissuniversities, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences a+. The next roadmap, the fifth of its kind, will be published in spring 2027. 

Review of roadmap process

Following the publication of the 2023 roadmap, SERI and the ERI partners involved launched a general review of the existing process. They are currently jointly planning what shape the next roadmap process should take. All those involved agree on the importance of a sound basis for decision-making and coordination processes. In addition to the stakeholders previously involved, the Open Research Data Strategy Council, which was constituted at the beginning of 2022, is now included in the reflection process.

Thematic roadmaps update

As a result of the ongoing consultations, at the end of 2023 SERI commissioned the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences a+ to update the seven thematic roadmaps. These were developed in 2021 by the science communities in the fields of biology, chemistry, geosciences, particle physics, astronomy, photon science and neutron science, in a process headed by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT). 

The updated thematic roadmaps are to be published by December 2024 at the latest, in what are to be called 'white papers' to distinguish them clearly from the main roadmap report. Over the coming few years, the white papers will provide a basis for ERI partners' 2027 Swiss roadmap planning and for the drafting of the roadmap report. Further information on the 2027 roadmap process will follow in due course.