In 2025, the Swiss universities achieved two milestones in the coordination of the Swiss higher education landscape: swissuniversities adopted a strategic vision for national research infrastructures in Switzerland and the Chamber of Universities decided to establish a portal for research infrastructures and research data infrastructures.
Financial challenges for universities in the field of research infrastructures
The importance of state-of-the-art research infrastructures in cutting-edge research continues to grow. With the ongoing advance of digitalisation, the need for investment in infrastructures has increased further. This poses significant financial challenges for universities. Efficient and pragmatic coordination among universities in the development and operation of research infrastructures and research data infrastructures is therefore even more important. At the same time, there is a need for specific funding instruments to enable the establishment and operation of infrastructures of national relevance and interinstitutional importance.
swissuniversities has examined this issue in depth in the context of the Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures organised by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). In 2024, swissuniversities developed, in connection with the 2027 Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, a process for projects supported by cantonal universities. This process consists three phases of coordination, prioritisation and pre-selection by the Vice-Rectors for Research (VPsRES) of the respective universities.
Development of the Swiss Portal for Academic Data and Research Infrastructures (SPADRI)
As a future coordination instrument, on 30 October 2025 the Chamber of Universities decided to establish a portal for research infrastructures and research data infrastructures. The Swiss Portal for Academic Data and Research Infrastructures (SPADRI) will provide an inventory of the most important research infrastructures and research data infrastructures in Switzerland. The portal aims to increase the visibility of these infrastructures, facilitate access to information for researchers, university management, SERI and other national stakeholders, and strengthen coordination among universities at the national level.
Alongside the decision to establish SPADRI, the Chamber of Universities also adopted a governance for the portal. The University of Zurich was mandated, as the lead institution, to implement the SPADRI portal. The group of VPsRES, already responsible for managing the swissuniversities-internal process of the 2027 Swiss Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, will oversee the procedures for including infrastructures on the portal and issue corresponding recommendations to the swissuniversities bodies responsible. The VPsRES consist of the Vice-Rectors for Research of the ten cantonal universities, the two Federal Institutes of Technology, and one representative each from the universities of applied sciences, the universities of teacher education and the research institutes of the ETH Domain.
The development of the SPADRI portal is supported by the universities as well as by a contribution from the Open Science II programme. SPADRI will enable a strategic overall view in the planning of new infrastructures. This will allow resources to be used more efficiently, duplication to be avoided and optimal utilisation of existing infrastructures to be achieved. The portal will perform tasks of nationwide significance and will be discussed, as the case may be, within the framework of the Swiss Higher Education Policy Coordination 2029–32.
Strategic vision for national research infrastructures in Switzerland
The work related to SPADRI has highlighted the need for a long-term strategic perspective for the development of research infrastructures in Switzerland. On 3 December 2025, swissuniversities therefore adopted the “Strategic Vision on National Research Infrastructures (RIs) in Switzerland”.
In this document, swissuniversities calls for the provision of adequate and specific funding, respectively co-funding, by the federal government for two types of research infrastructures and research data infrastructures: those of national relevance and those of interinstitutional importance. At the same time, optimal, streamlined coordination processes tailored to the respective type of infrastructure must be ensured among universities. These recommendations take into account the challenges associated with financing research infrastructures and research data infrastructures.
With the establishment of the SPADRI portal and the position paper on research infrastructures of national relevance and interinstitutional importance, swissuniversities and all universities are contributing to the current discussions on future governance and funding instruments in the field of research infrastructures and research data infrastructures.