Plant Science Center

Where researchers and stakeholders interact

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  • Forschung

Where researchers and stakeholders interact

Agricultural sciences at ETH have always had close links to the Swiss farming community and politics. It started in 1871 with Professor Kraemer informing about the setup of the study programme in the "Landwirtschaftliche Zeitung" or Prof. Laur becoming Farmers' Secretary and managing director of the Swiss Farmers' Union in 1898. The Plant Science Center continues this tradition of working relationships with Swiss farmers and politics.

The exchange of information and ideas between agricultural research and stakeholders is vital for maintaining socially relevant research. For the last 20 some years the Plant Science Center (PSC) has been connecting researchers to public and policy. For this reason, the Center supports professors with fellowships through the PhD program Science and Policy in which students complete internships with stakeholders such as plant breeders.

In 2018 for the first time the ETH had a large stand at the Olma in St. Gallen. The PSC, together with the World Food System Center curated an exhibition of the latest research on sustainable farming. We were pleased to be able to share ETH research with thousands of visitors and a very prominent politician.

Olma 2018: With Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Amann (in the middle) and Bruno Studer, Professor of Molecular Plant Breeding at ETH Zurich. (Photo: Michael Huwiler)
Olma 2018. (Photo: Michael Huwiler)
Olma 2019: With Federal Councillor Alain Berset (in the middle) and Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich. (Photo: Sebastian Wagner)
Olma 2019. (Photo: Sebastian Wagner)
Olma 2019. (Photo: Sebastian Wagner)