LAST year the unthinkable happened. After five gruelling races in rough seas, the America鈥檚 Cup was won by a European boat for the first time since the inception of the race 150 years ago. And who was behind the victory? A team from landlocked Switzerland.
The venture was funded by the sailing-obsessed CEO of Europe鈥檚 largest biotech company, Serono, based outside Geneva. Ernesto Bertarelli, a 38-year-old billionaire, set up Team Alinghi in 2000 and swiftly proved that hailing from a small, landlocked nation needn鈥檛 be an obstacle to international sailing success. It is an attitude that many scientists in Switzerland share.
Switzerland may no longer be the richest country in the world 鈥� Luxembourg, Norway and the US have snatched the top three slots on the OECD鈥檚 global rich list comparing GDP per head at purchasing power parity. But by any standards it is still a very wealthy place, and it invests a high proportion of that national wealth in education and research. Research and development accounts for 2.6 per cent of Switzerland鈥檚 GDP, which puts the country sixth in the OECD, just behind Japan and the US.
Advertisement
For a country with only 7.1 million people, Switzerland is home to an impressive number of multinationals, including Nestl茅 and the drug giants Novartis and Roche. Likewise, many of its universities and technical institutes are among the best in the world, with both the University of Z眉rich and the city鈥檚 Institute of Technology ranked in the top 20 European universities. Clearly, Switzerland鈥檚 scientific ambitions stretch far beyond its borders.
Take ETH Z眉rich, one of two Swiss federal institute of technology, which celebrates its 150th birthday next year. Twenty-one Nobel prizewinners have worked here, most recently Kurt W眉thrich, who won the 2002 chemistry award. The institute鈥檚 aims for the future are no less ambitious. 鈥淲e want to be among the top three European research institutes and top 10 in the world,鈥� says Olaf K眉bler, president of ETH Z眉rich.
To achieve this, it is doing just what Bertarelli did when he wanted the very best crew for his America鈥檚 Cup bid: scouring the world for talent. The 30-strong Team Alinghi comprised nine different nationalities, while K眉bler says more than half the people in his faculty are from abroad. 鈥淲e say, let鈥檚 try to get the best in the world from wherever they are.鈥�
The Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) has equally high hopes for the future. Unlike the universities in Switzerland, which are funded and run by the local governments of the 26 cantons that make up the Swiss Confederation, both ETH Z眉rich and EPFL have a national mandate. EPFL is the younger and feistier of the two, playing catch-up after gaining national status in 1969. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have the history of ETH Z眉rich, with all the Nobel prizes. We are creating our history now,鈥� says Nicolas Henchoz, EPFL鈥檚 director of communication strategy.
The institute counts Team Alinghi among its recent successes, and a model of the boat鈥檚 hull sits proudly outside the materials sciences building. As official scientific advisers to the cup-winning team, EPFL researchers helped fine-tune the fluid dynamics of the hull and sails.
EPFL has grown dramatically over the past decade and has been radically restructured, says Giorgio Margaritondo, who will be the institute鈥檚 vice-president of academic affairs from October. Margaritondo, born in Italy and now a US citizen, recognises that this dynamism conflicts with the Swiss stereotype. 鈥淎broad, Switzerland is considered a very conservative place. But when they want something to happen, they can do it very fast,鈥� he says. As a result of the changes, 鈥渨e have been able to catch some of the superstars that were in the market recently鈥�, he adds. One example is Monika Henziger, head of research at Google, the internet search engine, who will join the faculty this month.
Meanwhile, Google itself has decided to tap into Switzerland鈥檚 success. The software company announced in January that it would open an R&D centre in Z眉rich to serve as its European headquarters. The company is now actively recruiting 鈥渧isionary computer scientists鈥� to staff the centre. Google, like many others, was lured to Switzerland by its pool of highly trained people, a favourable tax regime and the quality of life. But the country has been a haven for multinationals for many years now.
When IBM chose to build its European research centre near Z眉rich almost 50 years ago, Switzerland was an island of political stability in post-war Europe. The IBM Z眉rich Research Laboratory remains an oasis of calm. Tucked away in a village in the hills near Lake Z眉rich, it employs around 250 research staff, 70 per cent of them from abroad. This creates an international atmosphere. 鈥淩esearchers tell me they have the impression that when they come to the lab in the morning they feel like they leave Switzerland,鈥� says Hans Hofmann, human resources manager for the lab. Nanotechnology is one of the IBM lab鈥檚 fastest growing groups.
Nanotechnology is also one of the key focuses for Swiss science, and the 鈥淣anoscale Science鈥� network is one of 14 National Centres of Competence in Research set up since 2001 to draw together top researchers from across the country. Other NCCR topics include climate, agriculture and the brain.
Another up-and-coming area is biotech. 鈥淪witzerland has a very old tradition for research in medicine and biology,鈥� says Robert Kuster, vice-president of BioAlps, a biotech cluster around Lake Geneva. 鈥淔or our size, we鈥檙e not doing too badly,鈥� he says. And to give this sector a boost, local governments are offering incentives such as tax breaks and cheap lab and office space in business 鈥渋ncubators鈥�. 鈥淭he government has chosen biotech as something to push, particularly in Geneva, where they want to diversify because they rely too heavily on banking,鈥� says Tim Dyer of Addex Pharmaceuticals, a BioAlps company that specialises in new treatments for disorders of the central nervous system, including anxiety and addiction. In May, Addex raised 鈧�33 million in its second funding round, a record sum for European biotech.
From the company鈥檚 offices in a science park near Geneva鈥檚 international airport, Dyer can look out onto the labs of Serono 鈥� the company that all Swiss biotechs take inspiration from. Serono is one of Europe鈥檚 few profitable biotech companies, posting record profits of $390 million in 2003 boosted by sales of its multiple sclerosis drug, Rebif.
The true behemoths of the Switzerland鈥檚 drug industry, however, are Roche and Novartis. Both pharmaceutical companies have century-old ties with the town of Basel, where they have their headquarters. They have grown from small, local companies into giants employing thousands worldwide. But to the dismay of the Swiss, Novartis decided in May last year to build up its research centre in Boston in the US. However, the number of research staff in Basel will remain stable at around 1500 and ambitious building projects are under way (see 鈥淏uildings for the future鈥�). Roche employs around 1100 in its pharmaceutical research centre in Basel, the largest of its four international centres.
鈥淏asel is Basel: it doesn鈥檛 have international glamour like New York or Munich,鈥� says Karen Marsh, head of human resources for Global Pharma Research at Roche. However, the presence of the multinationals and the proximity of the French and German borders just north of the city make it a very cosmopolitan place to live. 鈥淵ou can throw a stone into France from this office,鈥� comments Michael Ritzau, an NMR expert at Novartis.
Switzerland鈥檚 success is built on its ability to attract multinationals and to build organisations of its own with international stature. But away from the big cities, the Swiss character is as strong as ever, says Ritzau. It may be the price you pay for having a country that runs like clockwork, but where else, he asks, would you have rules about which day you can hang out your washing?
Buildings for the future
Do great buildings build great minds? In Switzerland, they seem determined to find out. Companies and institutes are drafting in world-famous architects to redesign their sites.
Among the flagship projects is Building 92 at Roche in Basel. This glass-fronted research lab was designed by Herzog and de Meuron, the architects behind the highly acclaimed conversion of a London power station into the Tate Modern art gallery.
Not to be left out, Novartis is also redeveloping its Basel site. Right now, the campus on the outskirts of town looks like a building site. 鈥淭hey are dismantling the whole area,鈥� says Johannes Ottl, whose drug-screening lab will eventually move into a new building. But the company鈥檚 vision is to turn the site into a campus with the feel of a city, where leafy avenues lined with shops and cafes run between state-of-the-art research facilities. Phase I of the 10-year project got under way in October 2003.
The research campus concept seems to have reached Z眉rich too, 50 miles to the south-east. In a 2003 report from ETH Z眉rich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the out-of-town research campus was described as creating an overwhelming impression of 鈥渄our efficiency鈥�. Although green and open, it is a soulless place. 鈥淓TH Z眉rich needs to be a place that is humming 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,鈥� says vice-president for research, Ulrich Suter. Its proposal is to add accommodation for 1000 people, create a vibrant social scene and dub the place Science City.
Eventually the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne also wants to revamp its industrial-feeling campus. In February it launched an international architecture competition to design a 鈥渓andmark鈥� library. On the shortlist is Zaha Hadid, who won this year鈥檚 prestigious Pritzker architecture prize and designed the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. When complete, the library will have Lake Geneva and the distant Alps as a backdrop.
And that鈥檚 the beauty of Switzerland. Even when its buildings aren鈥檛 inspiring, the landscape certainly is.