Organisation

The Foundation’s three organs are the Foundation Board, the Scientific Committee and the Administrative Office. The FSM is financed by industry (Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange) and supported by the ETH Zurich. One-off grants have been received from the City of Zurich, ewz and the Hasler Foundation. Our events are sponsored by ENKOM AG and the following federal offices: FOEN, FOPH and OFCOM. An external body, the Scientific Committee, decides on the research funding awards. Our financial backers are not members of the Scientific Committee nor are they informed about the Committee’s deliberations. This firewall guarantees the absolute independence of all funding decisions.

• Organisational chart (German only)
• Rules of the Foundation (German only)
• Deeds of the Foundation (German only)

In addition to scientists (four university representatives) there is a representative from each of the industrial sponsors, the federal authorities (FOEN, FOPH and OFCOM) and the NGOs (Konsumentenforum kf, Schweizer Heimatschutz, Krebsliga Schweiz, Ingenieure Hospital Schweiz, Verband Schweizerischer Elektrizitätsunternehmen).

The Foundation Board elects members of the Scientific Committee, determines the research funding and Administrative Office’s budget, deals with appeals from project applicants and decides on whether or not researchers should be excluded from project funding in the case of gross breaches of contract.

The Scientific Committe of the Foundation consists of 8 persons in maximum. Apart from a delegate of the Foundation Board (that must not be an industry, NGO or authority representative) and the Executive Officer of the Foundation, the Committee consists of up to 6 external experts from Academia.

The Scientific Committee has the following duties and competences:

• Evaluation of the incoming research proposals
• Selection of external reviewers, if required
• Decision taking about research funding
• Advocate of funding decisions

The Foundation Office is responsible for the daily activities of the FSM.

It carries out and implements all business according to the Foundation goals and the decisions taken by the Foundation Board and the Scientific Committee.

Specific duties concern: Organisation of the research calls and controlling of the funded research activities, communication of research results and the state of scientific knowledge in both expert and public contexts, research and consulting activities. For a detailed description of the duties of the Foundation Office see: Office, for a description of the offered services see: Services.