Mandate

As an independent extra-parliamentary commission, the SSC initiates its own working programme at the beginning of each term and submits its recommendations and considerations to its stakeholders. Those stakeholders include the Federal Council, the Parliament, the Federal Administration, the cantonal authorities, and the ERI partners, such as the academies, swissuniversities, the ETH Board, Innosuisse, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
In addition to implementing its working programme, the SCC periodically assesses research and innovation policies on behalf of the Confederation. It reviews multi-year plans, drafts impact analyses, and conducts evaluations. The SSC also comments on individual projects or broader problems within the ERI system on its own initiative or on behalf of the Federal Council or the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education, and Research EAER. These tasks are described in the Federal Act on the Promotion of Research and Innovation.