Does the Swiss School of Public Health exist?

Abstract

‘‘Switzerland does not exist’’ or ‘‘La Suisse n’existe pas’’ was the statement the French artist Ben Vautier featured in the Swiss Pavilion at the World Exposition 1992 in Seville. It provoked an outcry in Switzerland, in particular in the political arenas of parliaments and the media. The Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH ?)—proud owner of the International Journal of Public Health—celebrated the 10th anniversary in 2015. Why would the SSPH? Directorate refer to Ben Vautier’s provocation to ask whether SSPH? does exist? As SSPH? moves into the second decade it will face the challenges of puberty and the years as a teenager. These are times of transitions, changes and reflections too. Table 1 summarizes the major achievements and highlights of the first 10 years of SSPH?. These successes, achieved under the leadership of the past Directors were also the result of the solid funding structure. SSPH?, initiated in July 2005 through funds from the Swiss University Conference (SUC), was transformed into a Foundation as of 2008. At that time, SSPH? expanded its network from six to eight Swiss universities, including all universities with major academic institutions of public health, namely Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Lugano, Neuchâtel and Zurich. The SUC support for SSPH? was reserved for the first 12 years to then adopt a new financing model. Indeed, as of 2017, the SUC funds—in the past some 1–3 Mio CHF per year—will be replaced by a model where all the universities that carry SSPH? would become its direct funding bodies. This visionary model for a School of Public Health being a network of all academic public health constituencies rather than a classic central ‘‘school’’ is intriguing for a small country like Switzerland. The model gives a promising structure to strengthen public health in a country where excessively federalistic structures resulted so far in rather weak public health systems and infrastructures— comparable to the situation in Germany where an expert panel properly identified the need for strengthening the field (German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina et al. 2015). Whether we will accomplish this goal in the next decade will depend on the future willingness to collaborate, which in turn will also depend on sustainable funds. At this stage, the foundation has neither been set on balanced nor stable grounds for its upcoming time as a teenager. As the budget will be lower than in the past and commitments of the eight university partners unequal (contributions of each university range between 5 and 60 % of the future budget) one primary strategic goal of the Directorate will be to strengthen the financial pillars of SSPH?. This Editorial was published on occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Swiss School of Public Health.