Research Earth - live e-map of Swiss research partnerships
A new digital map shows Switzerland's diverse research partnerships with institutions in developing and transition countries. The live e-map makes it easier to use synergies, better identify focal points of cooperation and enter into new partnerships.
Finding solutions to global problems and local impacts requires worldwide research partnerships with institutions in developing and transition countries. Such international research partnerships and intersectoral collaborations with politics, administration, business and civil society enable the consideration of global interrelations and different local needs for developing and implementing innovative solutions. Switzerland benefits from such research collaborations just as much as developing and transition countries.
Overview of Switzerland's global research partnerships
Swiss research institutions have long maintained numerous research partnerships with institutions in least developed, low and lower middle income countries. They are funded by various Swiss organisations, such as the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, or private foundations. Although individual research organisations and funding agencies document the funded projects in various databases an overview of global research partnerships funded by Switzerland did not exist until now. The novel Research Earth globe shows Switzerland's research partnerships with institutions in developing and transition countries. It currently depicts a dataset provided by SNSF with 57 projects funded in the r4d programme and 15 projects funded in the SPIRIT programme . More datasets are prepared for appearance in https://research-earth.ch .
Research Earth provides an overview and enables researchers as well as those involved in politics, administration, business and civil society to find out who is conducting research where and on which topics. The aim is to simplify networking in order to exploit synergies and avoid duplication. For example, development organisations and foundations can use the map to obtain an overview of research activities in their topics or regions of focus. Research Earth offers researchers the opportunity to find additional research partners and to participate in international calls for proposals in new constellations.
Research funding organisations can use the information from Research Earth to better shape their funding instruments, for example, in order to strengthen regional or thematic research priorities or to close existing gaps in research.
Exploring Research Earth
On a digital globe, Research Earth shows organisations and institutes involved in ongoing or recently completed collaborative research projects. Their networks and research disciplines are presented. Easy navigation on the globe allows searching for research institutes in different regions of the world. A search and browse feature using keywords is available. At present, Research Earth exclusively maps Swiss research partnership projects with developing and transition countries. The platform offers all the technical prerequisites to also map research partnerships with developing and transition countries of other European countries.
Research Earth was developed by the Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries ( KFPE ) of the Swiss Academy of Sciences ( SCNAT ) and the Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development ( r4d programme ) of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation ( SDC ) and the Swiss National Science Foundation ( SNF ), and technically implemented by OVA partner .
Contact
Dr. Fabian Käser, SCNAT, Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE), House of Academies, 3001 Bern, Switzerland, +41 31 306 93 49; E-Mail