“The people here are aware just how important precision is – it is in their blood.
This is connected with the tradition of the precision industry in the region.”

Marco G. Zingg
Chairman
DT Swiss

the natural home for ultra-hi-tech specializations

The GREATER GENEVA BERNE area (GGBa) is a world leader in high value-added sectors such as micro and nanotechnology and precision engineering. The region hosts global companies such as Marvell, Semtech, Festo Microtechnology, Innovative Silicon, Colibrys, Melexis Technologies and Etel. This expertise has evolved from the region’s watchmaking past, which provided the skills necessary to develop miniaturization and automation, micromechanics and microelectronics, advances which are applied to medtech, biotech, chemistry, environmental protection, semiconductors, high-precision optics and information and communication technologies (ICT).

• GGBa/Swiss pre-eminence in micro-nanotechnology and precision engineering is surpassed only by the USA, Germany and Japan.
• According to the OECD, Switzerland is at the forefront of developing knowledge-based industries and is among the leading group for acquiring the new skills needed by the industries of the future.

political will and funding for r&d

The GGBa’s culture of invention which guarantees competitiveness far beyond what might be expected in a country of 7.5 million people is thanks to long-standing political and capital investment. Switzerland spends 2.9% of GDP on research and development – ahead of Germany, France and the UK (the European Union average is 1.9%).

Help to industry on the ground

The GGBa’s hi-tech companies bring their science to market with the help of federal bodies including the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency (CTI). To ensure that no ideas get lost in the pipeline on a regional level, numerous GGBa universities and agencies also act as an interface between business, government and academic resources, such as Alliance, Platinn and TT-Novatech (Berne).

The Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) at the University of Fribourg is a research center devoted to materials science and nanoscience. The AMI also runs an industrial liaison and technology transfer office and an application laboratory for companies.

concentrated expertise

Strong political backing exists to encourage micro-nanotechnology and precision engineering firms to form collaborative “clusters”. One example is the Bernese jura, home to more than 100 small and medium-sized businesses, including Longines, Sonceboz, Straumann, Schaublin and Tornos. The precision industry holds its SIAMS and mediSIAMS international trade fairs in the Bernese Jura every year on a rotational basis, attracting exhibitors from all over Europe.

The GGBa is also at the center of Micronarc – the micro-nanotechnology communication platform for Western Switzerland -which develops and promotes related industries, educational structures, R&D facilities, technology transfer and inward investment.

training

Industry-specific courses exist for hi-tech companies in microtechnology, electrotechnology and engineering (Berne University of Applied Sciences) micro-nanotechnology studies (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne - EPFL, the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology - CSEM, the University of Neuchâtel’s Institute of Microtechnology, Fribourg Engineering School, Biel/Bienne’s College of Technology and Informatics and Geneva Engineering School). Last but not least, the Swiss Foundation for Research in Microtechnology in Neuchâtel (FSRM) offers 170 microtechnology training courses covering everything from precision engineering quality control to micropositioning and micro-optics.