Innovative and interdisciplinary - 14 Sinergia projects

Whether audiovisual archives or microalgae: all of the new projects of the Sinergia programme will reap the benefits of research collaboration.

Last June, the SNSF received 73 project proposals for Sinergia grants. 14 thereof, conducted by 45 grantees in all, will be awarded a grant. This corresponds to a success rate of 19 per cent. From a total budget of 35.8 million francs, the projects will receive 2.6 million on average, the majority for a four-year period. The proposals range over 40 different disciplines: 37 per cent in biology and medicine, as well as in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering, and 26 per cent in the humanities and social sciences.

Access to audiovisual archives

One of the projects will use computer-aided methods to make the copious audiovisual archives of Switzerland accessible to the general public. The aim is to close the gap between this archived material and the participatory world of museological experience.

Researchers from EPF Lausanne, the University of Zurich and Amsterdam University are collaborating on this project, which opens a new avenue of investigation in museology. They work in the disciplines experimental museology, film studies, audiovisual history and machine learning respectively.

Exploiting the potential of microalgae

Another Sinergia project focuses on microalgae. A team of researchers in biology, biochemistry, optics, food sciences and bioreactor technology from Bern University of Applied Sciences, ETH Zurich and the University of Cambridge want to encourage more intensive use of microalgae. The aim is to exploit the full potential of these efficient biocatalysts in the fuel, feed, food and health industries.