News

The World Food System Center is entering a new chapter with a transition in the leadership of its Steering Committee. 

How and where does life originate in the universe? How can physical phenomena be measured with the highest precision? How is Switzerland handling increasing climate and weather extremes? Three new National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs), awarded to ETH Zurich and its partner universities, seek to answer these questions.

A recent project has successfully validated the integration of autonomous aerial robotics and environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis for the early detection of invasive species. The research demonstrated that this interdisciplinary approach provides a significant temporal advantage over traditional monitoring methods in Swiss viticulture.

Alumni Stories: Fiona Schneider reflects on how an intensive deep dive at the WFSC Summer School 2025 shaped her approach to food systems, interdisciplinary groupwork, and collaborative change.

The Center looks back on the many exchanges and new collaborations with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2025. Much of the cooperation has been boosted by the growing UN-ETH Partnership.

For over 50 years, ETH Zurich and the local forestry service have been using the forest in the municipality of Tujetsch in Surselva for research and teaching purposes. This partnership is now being strengthened with the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and its CERC research centre at this location. Together with the Canton of the Grisons, researchers are investigating how mountain forests can best fulfil their protective function even in the face of climate change.

Claude Müller and Lea Fabritius are the winners of this year's Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIAR) award. While Claude Müller's doctoral thesis provides new insights into soil management practices in diverse agroecosystems, the Master's thesis of Lea Fabritius focuses on the social life cycle assessment of five coffee production case studies in the South of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

We are excited to announce that applications for the 2026 World Food System Summer School “Design Ideas for Sustainable Food Systems” are open now!

In the latest allocation of European funding for cutting-edge research, ETH Zurich scientists have performed exceptionally well. Here, we present the projects that will receive several million euros in funding.