Committed to Switzerland.

Gender medicine is innovating the way diseases are diagnosed, treated and prevented. This innovative discipline takes into account the gender-specific differences in the biology of the human body, as well as gender-specific roles and lifestyles. It describes the differences in disease symptoms between the sexes in order to develop customized health solutions for women and men.

Initiative Switzerland supports and promotes the “Swiss Gender Medicine Symposium” project, which was initiated by the University of Zurich and will in future be supported by various university medical institutions, and is helping to set up a national network and launch the planned symposium.

The True Story Festival offers unique access to world events. 45 reporters from 25 countries will travel to Bern for a long weekend and provide insights into their research and stories from different parts of the world.

On Friday, May 24, 2024, the True Story Festival will be launched in the Kursaal Bern with the presentation of the True Story Award 2024. 947 texts from 102 countries were submitted for the fourth edition of the first global journalism award. The main jury will select the three winners from the 36 best texts.

In view of the challenging global situation, it is more important than ever for society to form well-founded and transparent opinions as an indispensable pillar of democracy. With its global focus and dissemination of relevant texts, the True Story Award aims to set an example for transparency, diversity and quality. It provides insights into world events from a local perspective and thus promotes journalism worldwide. On a global level, the award promotes freedom of opinion and the right to freedom of expression.

We are delighted to support the One Young World Switzerland National Congress on May 23 and 24, 2024 in Zurich on the theme "Leadership with Integrity".

This congress will allow 200 of Switzerland's best young leaders to experience a two-day event dedicated to discussion, networking and promoting positive action in our organizations and communities. This is an opportunity to engage with visionary minds and shape the future with integrity at its core.

The Swiss Initiative played a key role in a national project initiated by National Council President Martin Candinas. In the National Council Chamber, 59 coats of arms of the most populous municipalities and cities from 1902 can be admired. These represent not only the entire Swiss people, but also the members of the National Council and thus symbolize an important political level alongside the Confederation and the cantons.

The motto of this project was: "Together into the future: federalism and 175 years of the Federal Constitution." Under this motto, all the presidents of the cantonal parliaments and representatives of the communes and cities were invited to the Federal Palace, whose coats of arms have adorned the National Council chamber and the south façade of the Federal Palace since 1902.

In order to preserve the historical heritage of the over 120-year-old coats of arms, the Swiss Initiative used state-of-the-art drone technology to photograph and faithfully reproduce the 26 cantonal coats of arms on the south façade of the parliament building and the 59 municipal and city coats of arms on the ceiling of the National Council chamber. The processed data was then handed over to the parliamentary services.

Entrepreneurial thinking and action are increasingly required in the professional world, regardless of industry, in order to be able to react to rapidly changing circumstances and take advantage of new opportunities. These skills are not industry-specific, which is why the professional championship in entrepreneurship at SwissSkills 2022 is open to participants from all industries.

At EuroSkills 2021, the championships in Entrepreneurship/Business Development were held for the fifth time. For this reason, the IG EntrepreneurSkills, in collaboration with SwissSkills, has decided to launch the Entrepreneurship category at the Swiss Skills Championships 2022 (SwissSkills 2022), thus giving young professionals the chance to compete internationally.

Through the ‘Connexa Helvetica’ project, we are connecting the experienced, older generation with young talents in all Switzerland’s language regions. We promote understanding, exchange, and appreciation from Ticino to the French- and German-speaking regions of Switzerland to the Romansh-speaking valleys. The mastermind behind the project is Christian Häuselmann, who in his book Schweiz2291 asked seventy well-known Swiss personalities to describe the kind of Switzerland they would like to see when the country celebrates its 1000th anniversary in 2291. Based on this vision of the future, the Connexa Helvetica project will promote permanent dialogue between generations, with a focus on digital networking and the idea of community. Blogs are planned in the respective national languages as well as a variety of events in all four language regions, with participants hailing from all generations in Switzerland.

Arboloom is the brainchild of the innovation factory ’creaholic’ from Biel/Bienne, which has developed a cup made from wood veneer. The project was initiated by Laurent Torriani and his idea of how to produce resource-saving packaging materials. Ivo Schläpfer, project manager and product designer, developed the veneer cup with his team. Veneer is the term used to describe sheets of wood of a thickness of 0.5 to 8 mm that are peeled from the trunk of a tree using a variety of sawing and cutting processes. The Arboloom cups are 100% recyclable, contain no microplastics and the veneer is obtained from sustainable wood production from Swiss forests. Compared to conventional paper cups, their production requires around 2.5 times less wood and their CO2 footprint is up to ten times lower than cups made of other materials.