Political encounters in the rock laboratory of Mont Terri in Saint-Ursanne: researchers show Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin a drill core of the opalinus clay that could one day be used to store radioactive waste. | Image: Georgios Kefalas/Keystone

“Scientists and scholars often suffer from political illiteracy”. That’s the crushing diagnosis of the Zurich science think-tank ‘Reatch’. But it’s also offering a means to rectify the situation. The Franxini Project is a kind of continuing education programme for researchers. They can attend a boot camp to learn the basics of the Swiss political system, or go to afterwork events to get to know politicians and other people outside the ivory tower of academia. There’s also a prize to be won that aims to get innovative solutions out of the academy and onto the desks of political decision-makers.

The Project enjoys support from almost all political parties – from the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) to the Greens. It is also being supported by researchers such as Astrid Epiney, the Rector of the University of Fribourg, and the epidemiologist Marcel Salathé of EPFL. Whether or not it will achieve its aims remains to be seen.