Signals, in order.

Six researchers at ETH Zurich have been awarded European Research Council Starting Grants, each receiving up to 1.5 million euros for five years. The grants cover diverse fields including artificial intelligence, robotics, biomedicine, chemistry, and statistics, and represent a small fraction of the 450 grants awarded across Europe. The projects aim to advance fundamental science and develop new technologies such as AI language model theory, soft tissue scaffolds, and novel chemical materials.

Source: ETH Zurich News

Geneva-based femtech startup Santelle has begun a two‑month pilot with 15 Swiss pharmacies under Galenica’s “Consultation Plus” framework, offering a CE‑marked vaginal infection self‑test and a companion app that guides users through sample collection and records results. The pilot will assess test uptake, pharmacist usefulness, and app usage, with plans to expand to 400 pharmacies if successful. Santelle recently closed a CHF 120,000 angel round to support this rollout.

Source: Startupticker

Finfluencer Fabio Marchesin has invested in the Swiss fintech startup Relai, a Bitcoin-only app with over 100,000 users and 620,000 app downloads. The investment, part of an undisclosed funding round, will help Relai strengthen its market position in Europe and expand its services. Marchesin will also serve as an adviser, supporting marketing and positioning in the Swiss market.

Source: Startupticker

NovaGo Therapeutics AG, a Swiss clinical‑stage biotechnology company, raised USD 30 million (CHF 24 million) in a Series B financing led by Neurimmune and Pureos, complemented by non‑dilutive funding from the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation and Wings for Life. The proceeds will fund a fully randomized, double‑blind proof‑of‑concept study enrolling 120 patients with acute spinal cord injury across sites in Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. The study aims to evaluate the anti‑Nogo‑A biologic NG004, which targets a protein that inhibits nerve regeneration.

Source: Startupticker

Quantum technologies are rapidly advancing, raising ethical, societal, and geopolitical concerns such as dual-use capabilities and a potential quantum divide. The Responsible Quantum Technologies (ResQT) community has emerged to share knowledge and best practices, aiming to align quantum development with ethical principles, promote equity, and mitigate unintended consequences. The paper synthesizes current ResQT work and outlines future actions, including responsible research and innovation, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable development to build trust and participatory development of qu…

Source: OpenAlex

The project is an open-source MR-physics escape room designed for research purposes. It is available internationally and encourages collaborative learning in magnetic resonance physics. The escape room format provides an interactive way to explore k-space concepts.

Source: OpenAlex

Giacomo Sala at the Paul Scherrer Institute has been awarded a €2.3 million (≈CHF 2.2 million) ERC Starting Grant to pursue the Q‑GEOMSPIN project, which merges spintronics with quantum geometry. The research aims to uncover new spintronic effects in topological materials, potentially leading to more efficient data storage and novel material properties. The grant will support a small team of doctoral and post‑doctoral researchers over five years, utilizing PSI’s advanced facilities such as the Swiss Light Source and a new cryostat.

Source: Swiss Federal Government

The OSCE Chairpersonship in Bern convened political leaders, diplomats, historians and experts to reflect on the origins of the CSCE and the relevance of its founding principles for European security. The conference was organized by the FDFA and the Dodis research centre, and attended by OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ignazio Cassis and OSCE Secretary-General Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu. The OSCE released a press statement on 3 September 2026 summarizing the event.

Source: Swiss Federal Government

EPFL researchers developed GOLLuM, a framework that trains large language models to act as uncertainty‑calibrated optimizers for experimental design. By coupling an LLM with a Gaussian process doubt detector, GOLLuM learns from past experiments to reorganize the search space, achieving faster convergence and higher success rates across 23 benchmark tasks in chemistry and materials science. The method reduces the number of required experiments by over 40% compared to traditional Bayesian optimization.

Source: EPFL News

On 2 September 2026 the Federal Council elected environmental scientist Tobias Walser to the ETH Board as a delegate of the university assemblies of ETH Zurich and EPFL. Walser, who has been managing director of the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich since 2022, will take office on 1 September 2026 and succeeds Kristin Becker van Slooten. He earned his PhD in 2012 in risk assessment of nanomaterials and has been involved in strategic initiatives at the intersection of technology, regulation and practice.

Source: Swiss Federal Government