vThe Swiss Study Foundation: “Development of young university talent”
The Swiss Study Foundation is an organisation that, as national institution, is committed to the promotion of excellence on a broad scale at all universities and universities of applied sciences. The purpose of the charitable and largely privately financed Foundation is to support talented young people who are keen to assume responsibility in all areas of our society.
On 4 November 1991, Eric Kubli, Professor of Biology at the University of Zurich, physicist Anton Schärli, and biologist Elisabeth Stumm, launched the Foundation with the aim of supporting talented young people at university level. In the years following the initial startup phase, the support programme and financial grants were successively expanded, educational formats were revised from a didactic point of view and new educational modules were developed. This was accompanied by a structural adaptation of the Foundation and the professionalisation of office processes.
Today, the Foundation organises diverse event series, specialist seminars and summer academies, where participants can discuss and critically reflect on scientific and socio-political issues in an open, often practice-driven environment. Through close collaboration with universities, authorities and partner foundations, the Foundation also contributes to the network-building and financial support of its grant recipients.
The Swiss Study Foundation works tirelessly to ensure that talented university students are given the best possible conditions to quench their thirst for knowledge, develop new ideas and fulfil their role in society. The broad educational approach pursued by the Foundation strengthens the beneficiaries’ ethical sensitivity, their capacity for critical self-reflection and thus also their sense of social responsibility. With its comprehensive educational vision, its consistent quality assurance and its political independence, the Foundation makes an important contribution to the Swiss education system at university level.