Swiss Leading House Africa

The Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) has mandated the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) – supported by the University of Basel and the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern – as the Swiss Leading House (LH) for sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative aims to strengthen scientific cooperation and collaboration between Switzerland and countries in the sub-Saharan region.

• Improve mutual knowledge and raise Switzerland's profile as a prime location for education, research, and innovation (ERI) and collaboration partner, in view of improving circulation of talents and direct cooperation between institutions.
• Support the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), upon request, in strengthening the collaboration with partner agencies in Africa, particularly the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Technology and Innovation Agency (TIA) in South Africa, the “Fonds pour la Science, la Technologie et l'Innovation” (FONSTI) in Côte d’Ivoire, the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) in Tanzania, the Kenyan National Innovation Agency (KENIA) and Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), among others.
• Support collaboration in the field of innovation through new or existing instruments, including those outside the Leading House and thus promote the opportunity of science-based collaborative entrepreneurship for Swiss and African stakeholders.

• Research Partnership Grants: Consolidated scheme for early to advanced research partnerships
• Lectureships and Prolonged Research Stays: Mobility groups to foster institutional capacity and joint activities
• PhD Graduate Programme: Interdisciplinary seasonal schools
• Academia Industry Training (AIT): Cohort based market exploration for research based innovation
• Researcher Sciencepreneur Collaboration Grant: Grants to support collaboration between researchers and startups with research based innovation.