Official Swiss visit focuses on shared research interests
Update: 4 July 2025
ANSTO welcomed a high-level Swiss delegation on Thursday 3 July to the Lucas Heights campus, including Switzerland's State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation (Head of the Science Delegation), Ms Martina Hirayama; Ambassador for Bilateral Economic Relations (Head of the Business Delegation), Her Excellency Andrea Rauber Saxer; Switzerland's Ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Nikolas Johannes Stürchler Gozenbach; and Consul General in Sydney, Mrs Elisabeth Andrea Bösch Malinen.
Other members of the group included Members of the Science and Business delegations, who were also in Australia.
CEO Shaun Jenkinson warmly welcomed the delegation, following their tour of the OPAL multi-purpose reactor, the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering and nuclear medicine facilities.
ANSTO shared three presentations highlighting the Australian Synchrotron, the Centre for Accelerator Science, and Critical Minerals.
The Swiss and ANSTO are interested in deepening collaborations by exploring potential opportunities in areas including nuclear medicine, biomedical research, critical minerals, materials research, and advanced manufacturing.
ANSTO has collaborated with several Swiss institutions, such as The Paul Scherrer Institut, the University of Bern, and ETH on research activities at its facilities and the Environment Research and Technology Group.
Australia has several bilateral agreements with Switzerland, including on nuclear safeguards and Memoranda of Understanding have been signed on cooperation in the fields of science, research and innovation. In 2020, Australia and Switzerland signed a Statement of Commitment to cooperate on Antarctic research.
The first results of the ETH Zürich and ANSTO collaboration focused on silicon carbide (SiC) devices have been reported in two publications.
