Switzerland’s well-established and world-renowned companies, combined with the strength of its universities and technical institutes, have helped to build an innovative and dynamic life science industry.The number of life science firms in the country has more than doubled since 1997, and Switzerland boasts the world’s highest per capita biotech density. Today, Switzerland has the sixth largest biotech market in Europe. Companies in the industry range from leading multinationals to innovative university start-ups, and the industry is well diversified, with firms conducting R&D activities in all areas of life science.

Jobs in Life Science

Actual jobs in life science on jobs.myScience.ch

Research Centers and projects

• SystemsX is a joint initiative in Systems Biology and was created to enhance and extend transdiciplinary research. The aim of SystemsX is to integrate existing technical and intellectual resources with the appropriate facilities and financial support. It consists of the following partners: The ETH Zürich, the EPF Lausanne, the Friedrich Miescher Institute, the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and the Universities of Basel, Berne, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich.
• Life Science Zurich is a joint project of the University of Zurich und the ETH Zurich aiming to create a stronger network for researchers in the field of the life sciences.
• The Friedrich Miescher Institute FMI is a research institute devoted to fundamental biomedical research aiming at exploiting new technologies to further the understanding of the basic molecular mechanisms of cells and organisms in health and disease.

Life Science Clusters

• BioValley Basel is a non-profit organisation and the Swiss pillar of the trinational BioValley Initiative. The association’s focus is to support companies and institutions by providing access to the member’s network and its broad range of knowledge and expertise in the field of Life Sciences. BioValley Basel aims at promoting the North-western part of Switzerland - particularly the Basel area - as prime location for Life Science companies; encouraging and supporting Life Science entrepreneurs who wish to set up their businesses in the Basel area; sponsoring communication and networking among representatives from science, economy, politics and the general public regarding Life Sciences and fostering contact among BioValley members from all countries and enhancing mutual support among them. BioValley Basel offers several services related to Life Sciences like a job portal, a news service, a company and and an academia database etc.

• Toolpoint is a cluster initiative focused on Life Science Instrument Companies. It generates benefits by combining competencies across member companies with mutual interests in order to increase their competitiveness by reducing costs, increasing efficiency and enabling inter-company projects.

Web Portals

• Swissbiotech is an information portal to biotechnology (a joint project by the federal agencies).
• The page Swisslifesciences provides free access to a directory and information platform comprising data of Life Sciences and Biotechnology companies and institutes in Switzerland including company description, additional information and categorization.
• The Swiss Plant Science Web (SPSW) is the umbrella organization for research and education in academic plant science in Switzerland. Aims: research collaborations and technology transfer, support and promotion of education in plant sciences, information and communications portal for academic plant sciences in Switzerland. 
• Lifescience-online is a free accessible platform that allows gathering information on global pharma and biotech companies and their drugs.

Funding possibilities

•  The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is Switzerland’s leading provider of scientific research funding and support also the research in medecine. Any researcher working in Switzerland can ask for a grant. Besides the ordinary project funding, there are also specific medical programes meant to strengthen clinical research in Switzerland.
• A lot of Swiss foundations finance research projects. The foundations financing projects in biotechnology and medecine can be found here.

• Strategic Japanese-Swiss Cooperative Program on Medical Research: Japanese-Swiss cooperative research projects in the field of “Medical Research” with a special focus on molecular aspects. The program supports two rounds of 3-4 projects with a maximal sum of CHF 50’000 per annum over a period of three years.

Associations

• The Swiss Biotech Association is the Swiss national association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, regional biotechnology centres and related organisations throughout Switzerland. Its webpage provides informationen about the biotech scene in Swizerland