Switzerland’s research-integrity system rests on two linked instruments: the Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity, a joint standard published in 2021 by the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences together with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), swissuniversities, and Innosuisse, and the Swiss Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity (SCCSI), a national body created by an ordinance passed in late 2024 and operational since 1 January 2026. Together they give Switzerland something most research systems still lack: a single, jointly-owned integrity standard adopted across universities, funders, and the innovation agency, backed by a dedicated national office that advises institutions and tracks how the standard is applied — while leaving investigation and sanctioning authority with the institutions themselves.
This guide explains what each instrument actually says and does, how they relate to one another, and how Switzerland’s model compares to the national research-integrity offices already built elsewhere in Europe and beyond.
The 2021 Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity
Published in May 2021, the Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity (German: Kodex für wissenschaftliche Integrität) replaced the Swiss Academies’ 2008 guidance document, Integrity in Scientific Research: Principles and Procedures. It was developed jointly by four bodies:
- The Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences (the umbrella organization for the country’s four academic academies), which coordinated drafting and continues to steward the document;
- The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the country’s main public research funder;
- swissuniversities, the Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences, Universities, and Universities of Teacher Education; and
- Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency, which funds applied and industry-linked research.
That joint authorship is itself the notable design choice: rather than each funder or institution publishing its own integrity policy, Switzerland consolidated expectations into one document that funders, universities, and applied research institutions all formally apply. The Code is explicitly framed as a living document — it sets out binding basic standards that institutions are expected to implement and may further elaborate on, rather than a static, closed rulebook.
Who the Code Applies To
The Code addresses everyone involved in generating, disseminating, and advancing knowledge within the Swiss higher-education and research system: individual researchers and lecturers at every career stage, the institutions that employ them, and the organizations that fund their work. It gives particular attention to training and mentoring early-career researchers, and it explicitly extends into areas older guidance did not cover in depth — open science practices and the use of social media and other public communication channels by researchers.
Core Principles
The Code organizes expected conduct around four core principles: reliability in the design, conduct, and reporting of research; honesty in developing, performing, and communicating research and in acknowledging others’ contributions; respect for colleagues, research participants, animals, the environment, and cultural heritage; and accountability for research from idea to publication, its management and organization, training, supervision, and mentoring, and for its wider impacts. These four principles closely track the language used in other major international integrity frameworks, including the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ALLEA), which the Swiss Code is designed to align with rather than diverge from.
Implementation Is Institutional, Not Centralized
The Code itself is a standard-setting document, not an enforcement mechanism. Swiss higher-education institutions and funding organizations are expected to adopt it into their own regulations, establish internal procedures for handling suspected violations, and appoint the local structures (such as integrity officers or ombudspersons) needed to apply it in practice. Until the 2024 ordinance discussed below, there was no single national office coordinating how consistently that adoption happened across roughly a dozen cantonal and federal universities, universities of applied sciences, and research institutions — each institution built out its own procedures against the shared Code.
The 2024 Ordinance and the Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity Switzerland
At its meeting on 8 November 2024, the Swiss Conference of Higher Education Institutions (the plenary assembly of swissuniversities) adopted the Ordinance on Quality Assurance in the Area of Scientific Integrity. The ordinance’s central act was establishing a new national body, the Swiss Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity (SCCSI), which began operating on 1 January 2026.
Structure
The Competence Centre has two parts:
- A Council for Scientific Integrity, which provides strategic and expert oversight; its founding chair is Prof. em. Edwin Constable of the University of Basel; and
- An administrative office, which carries out the Centre’s day-to-day advisory, data-collection, and reporting functions, led by Director Viviane Premand.
The administrative office is hosted at the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences — the same body that stewards the 2021 Code — which keeps the standard-setting and coordinating functions institutionally linked rather than split across unrelated organizations.
What the Competence Centre Does
The SCCSI describes itself as a national reporting, advisory, and monitoring body for scientific integrity matters. Its core functions are:
- Advisory support for higher-education institutions on scientific integrity questions and on their own internal procedures, including how to respond to specific cases and how to track international developments in the field;
- Data collection, compiling statistics on how scientific integrity is observed and handled across Swiss institutions — building a national picture that no single institution could assemble on its own;
- A reporting function, recording proceedings that institutions have already raised with it concerning procedures, sanctions, and measures related to scientific integrity; and
- Promotion and training, including promoting the Code of Conduct itself, networking existing integrity expertise across institutions, and offering training and educational support on good scientific practice.
What It Does Not Do
The Competence Centre is explicitly not an investigative or disciplinary authority. It does not open or run misconduct investigations, and it does not impose sanctions. Investigative and disciplinary authority remains with individual higher-education institutions, which retain their own integrity officers, ombudspersons, and internal procedures built against the 2021 Code. The Centre’s role sits above that institutional layer — coordinating, advising, and aggregating data — rather than replacing it.
How the Two Instruments Fit Together
The relationship is sequential and complementary rather than overlapping. The 2021 Code of Conduct is the substantive standard: it defines what scientific integrity means in the Swiss system and what reliability, honesty, respect, and accountability require in practice. The Competence Centre, created by the 2024 ordinance, is the coordinating infrastructure: it uses the Code as its explicit basis, promotes consistent understanding and application of it across institutions, and gives Switzerland a national point of contact and a national evidence base that did not previously exist. Neither instrument replaces institutional responsibility — Swiss universities and funders remain the bodies that adopt, apply, and enforce the Code day to day; the Centre exists to support and monitor that system, not to run it centrally.
How Switzerland’s Model Compares Internationally
Switzerland’s two-instrument model sits within a broader European pattern of national research-integrity infrastructure built over the past decade, though the specific division of labor varies by country. Germany’s system centers on the DFG Code of Conduct and the Ombudsman for Science (OWID), run through the German Research Foundation. France established OFIS, the Office français de l’intégrité scientifique, as a department of Hcéres with a statutory mandate since 2020, coordinating national policy while leaving investigations to institutional research integrity officers — structurally the closest parallel to the Swiss Competence Centre’s advisory-not-investigative design. Outside Europe, national approaches diverge further still, from the United States’ federally-empowered Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which does investigate misconduct in PHS-funded research, to China’s CAST, which operates within a different institutional and regulatory context entirely. What Switzerland’s model shares with France’s is the explicit choice to keep national bodies advisory and data-gathering rather than investigative, on the view that misconduct determinations are best made close to where the alleged conduct occurred, by the institution that employs the researcher.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Swiss Competence Centre a replacement for institutional research integrity offices?
No. Swiss higher-education institutions keep their own integrity officers and internal procedures, and they retain sole authority to investigate allegations and impose sanctions. The Competence Centre advises, collects data, and promotes the shared Code — it does not take over case handling.
Does the 2021 Code of Conduct have legal force on its own?
The Code itself is a jointly-published standard, not a federal statute. It becomes binding at each institution through that institution’s own adoption of it into internal regulations, which SNSF, Innosuisse, and swissuniversities’ member institutions have done as signatories to its development. The 2024 ordinance adds a further layer of national coordination but does not convert the Code into federal law.
When did the Competence Centre actually start operating?
The ordinance establishing it was adopted on 8 November 2024 by the Swiss Conference of Higher Education Institutions, and the Centre began operating on 1 January 2026, hosted administratively at the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.
Who funds and governs the Competence Centre?
It was established under swissuniversities’ Ordinance on Quality Assurance in the Area of Scientific Integrity and is governed through a Council for Scientific Integrity (chaired by Prof. em. Edwin Constable) and an administrative office (directed by Viviane Premand), hosted at the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences.
How does the Swiss Code of Conduct relate to the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity?
The Swiss Code’s four core principles — reliability, honesty, respect, and accountability — are designed to align with the ALLEA European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, reflecting the broader European convergence around a shared vocabulary for research-integrity expectations rather than a Switzerland-specific standard.
Key Takeaways for Research Administrators
- Switzerland runs on one jointly-owned integrity standard (the 2021 Code) rather than separate policies per funder or institution — useful context when comparing a Swiss collaborator’s or applicant’s institutional integrity policy against your own.
- The Competence Centre (operating since 1 January 2026) is a resource and coordination point, not a body that will investigate a case on an institution’s behalf — route actual allegations through the relevant Swiss institution’s own research integrity officer.
- Because the Centre also compiles national statistics on how integrity matters are handled, expect more comparative, system-level data on Swiss research-integrity outcomes to become available over time than existed before 2026.
- For institutions collaborating with Swiss partners or reviewing SNSF/Innosuisse-funded projects, the 2021 Code’s four principles are the reference standard to check applicant or partner institutions against.
This page reflects publicly available information as of mid-2026, verified against Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, SNSF, and Swiss Competence Centre for Scientific Integrity primary sources. Given how recently the Competence Centre became operational (1 January 2026), readers handling a specific case should confirm current procedures directly with the Centre (scientific-integrity.ch) or the relevant Swiss institution.
