Comments by the Head of Dossier
It is my pleasure to look back at my first year as Head of the Research Dossier. Over the course of 2021, I witnessed how the Research Affairs Office and a considerable number of university staff continued to intensively develop professional research structures at ZHdK.
Central to these efforts is the university-wide strategic project «Future Research Organisation», which is creating a binding structural and conceptual framework. This reorganisation is crucial in particular for the future of our research institutes. It will also provide our professors and doctoral students with a stable perspective, anchor our new PhD Centre within ZHdK, and support the growing number of cooperative PhD programmes. Six programmes have been successfully launched at ZHdK, four of which are funded by swissuniversities. In 2021, we also decisively expanded our services in the areas of Open Science, Open Access, research data management, research communication and funding. The output of the small team at the Research Affairs Office was exceptional in the year under review.
In order to strengthen the position of research in the arts in Switzerland’s funding landscape, a series of internal and external measures were adopted in association with the Dossier Committee. In addition, Bea Böckem initiated a working group with colleagues from German-speaking universities of the arts and music in the Science Management Network, which — under her presidency — will make our particular type of university more visible as well as sharpen its profile.
Another concern for ZHdK research is Switzerland’s relationship with Europe. Since the Federal Council has discontinued negotiations on the Framework Agreement with the European Union, Switzerland will be considered a non-associated third country until further notice. As a result, Swiss universities can no longer participate as full partners in EU programmes such as Horizon Europe or Erasmus+. These developments challenge Switzerland’s future as an education, research and innovation hub in Europe.
It is thus even more important that ZHdK strengthens other international, national and local collaborations. Within and beyond ZHdK, research and the 3rd cycle are becoming increasingly important in the context of Shared Campus, the Digitisation Initiative of Zurich Universities (DIZH), the Collegium Helveticum, research units such as the Immersive Arts Space and the Zurich Center for Creative Economies (ZCCE), and not least the Major-Minor Programme model: The ZHdK research community is strongly committed to new transversal offerings, which will be open to all students and dedicated to promoting «reflective practitioners» even more strongly.
Marijke Hoogenboom, Head of the Research Dossier, February 2022