Past Activities and Results

2025

Publication of Report “Innovative Teaching Formats at the Science–Society Interface: Reflections and Future Directions in Swiss Higher Education”

The first cycle of the project allowed us to take stock of existing innovative teaching formats at higher education institutions in Switzerland at the science–society interface. This was achieved through a workshop held on 12 June 2024 in Bern with lecturers already involved in innovative teaching at the science–society interface. The aim was to share experiences while creating a network to explore potential future collaborations.

As a result of this, a report of was published by the Swiss Academies in autumn 2025: “Innovative Teaching Formats at the Science–Society Interface: Reflections and Future Directions in Swiss Higher Education”. It draws on a non-exhaustive list of existing courses in Switzerland and participatory workshops with lecturers. It introduces a typology of science–society teaching formats structured across six dimensions, offering a practical tool to design and analyse courses. In addition, it discusses key opportunities and challenges linked to the implementation of such formats and identifies three priority areas for future action.

2024

Workshop on innovative teaching formats at House of Academies (12 June 2024)

We facilitated exchanges between lecturers of HEIs in Switzerland who already use or are interested in using innovative teaching formats for science-society dialogue. This was done through a network-building workshop organized in June 2024 at the House of Academies in Bern. The workshop brought together 28 lecturers from different disciplines and institutions across Switzerland and fostered exchanges about innovative teaching methods. Furthermore, it helped us identify the opportunities, challenges, and ways to move forward with innovative teaching courses at the science society interface. The graphic recording of the session allowed us to concretely visualize each of these for further use.

Workshop “Innovating teaching at the science-society interface – opportunities, barriers, and ways forward” (23 October 2024)

We organized a workshop for young lecturers in Swiss higher education institutions at the event “Transforming our university teaching towards sustainability”, which was organized together by WWF Switzerland, Wissenschaft schafft Zukünfte, Sustainable Development Solutions Network SDSN, and Swiss Young Academy.