The specialised knowledge company Oxford Research has evaluated the swissnex network at the request of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI. The evaluation describes swissnex as a customer-oriented, flexible and dynamic organisation that offers significant added value to its publicly funded and private partners. Without the support of swissnex, most universities, researchers or start-ups would not be able to achieve their internationalisation goals to the same extent. Among the recommendations made by the evaluation are a greater swissnex presence in Switzerland, a stronger focus on long-term projects and a more targeted exchange between the individual swissnex locations.

The partnership with swissnex gives higher education institutions, individual researchers and young entrepreneurs direct access to a broad local network and insight into how this operates and the opportunities it presents. 30% of Swiss higher education institutions have concluded long-term cooperation agreements with partner institutions thanks to support from swissnex, 24% of start-ups have developed commercial activities locally and 16% of individual researchers have launched research activities with local players. Thanks to the physical presence and the events held by swissnex in these ERI hotspots – some of which are open to the general public – Switzerland is seen as a leading location for education, research and innovation.

Swissnex is the Swiss international network for education, research and innovation. It helps its partners to form international networks for the exchange of knowledge, ideas and talent. The five swissnex locations and their branch offices can be found in some of the world’s most lively innovation hubs. Along with around 20 science councillors based at Swiss embassies, swissnex promotes Switzerland’s influence as a global innovation hotspot.