Work at the university should be characterised by sustainability, diversity and equal opportunities.

Academic staff are often under pressure: the pressure to publish, time constraints and uncertainty characterise research and teaching. This contrasts with the conditions required for academic excellence: sustainable working conditions, comprehensive evaluation and open collaboration. Bold ideas do not emerge under time pressure and stress. The good news is that all members of the academic community can contribute to a better academic culture and drive change at every level. Better Science shows how researchers, teams and institutions can create a fair, respectful and responsible environment.

What are the demands of the Better Science Initiative?

Better Science focuses on people with their needs, abilities and actions. They experience continuous pressure from constant evaluation and quantification in research, as well as from high demands on teaching and third-party funding. However, this contrasts with a healthy workload that allows for creativity and openness in teaching and research. This affects not only academic excellence and diversity, but also the rules of the game and the working conditions of academic careers. Diversity and equal opportunities at the university enable everyone to pursue excellent research and teaching.

A new academic culture begins at the individual level as well as at the level of the university system. The Better Science Initiative aims to enable all university members to engage, network, and exchange ideas. In a sustainable research culture, responsible leaders have the capacity to empower and support their staff. Science policy and universities also contribute to a good research culture and academic excellence. Fair evaluation practices judge by quality rather than quantity.

Ten calls to action serve as a starting point for discussion and encourage rethinking. By raising awareness among university members and academic leaders, the initiative draws attention to the challenging work environment at universities. The Better Science Initiative advocates for quality, healthy research, calls for equal opportunity, inclusion and diversity, and is committed to sustainable working conditions.

I have signed the calls to action. How can I take action?

By signing the calls to action, you make your support for the Better Science Initiative visible. Everything else is up to you: Become active for the implementation of the calls to action. Print out the poster with the calls to action and hang it on your office door, lead a discussion in your team about the topics of the Better Science Initiative or organize a workshop on the implementation of the calls to action in your institute. You will find many opportunities and approaches to address research culture in your team, unit and implement improvements in our collection of good practices.

My organization wants to sign the calls to action. What do we have to do?

The signature as institute, faculty, university or other organization shows the recognition of the importance of the issues the Better Science Initiative presents. In addition, the organization acknowledges the intent to implement the calls to actions.

The exact implementation process is decided upon by the organization. In the publications list further down on this page, there is a document laying out the signature process.

My organization / unit has signed the calls to action. How can we take action?

By signing the calls to action, you make your organization's support for the Better Science Initiative visible. Afterwards, discuss in your organization what this means for you and your employees. We are happy to support you in implementing the Better Science Initiative in your structures and processes. See our links for resources on how other institutions promote a good research culture. Contact us here if you have further questions..

What Better Science Initiative events can I host?

Would you like to present and discuss the demands of the Better Science Initiative, implementation ideas and research culture topics in your team, institute or organization? We support you in conducting workshops and other events that explore how you can implement the contents of Better Science in your team, research and teaching. For more in-depth exploration of how to implement the calls to action in your team or organization, we offer a workshop package. Contact us here if you would like to learn more.

Why is the Better Science Initiative necessary?

Our chatbot explains the precarious situation of many university employees. Many lecturers and scientists are exposed to a "culture of overtime" and suffer from psychological stress more often than others. Here we describe our demands in detail. Healthy, happy people who work in an environment that offers them psychological safety perform better. This safety can be guaranteed in particular by an appropriate design of the culture in a team, an institute. Diverse teams are also more focused, innovative, and diligent (see also Gewin 2018). The Better Science Initiative wants to draw attention to the potential that many higher education units can use to do and share better science. You can find more articles on the topic below and in our good practices collection.

Who does the Better Science Initiative concern?

The tertiary education sector (in Switzerland) is characterized by a large number of different institutions. The Better Science Initiative refers primarily, but not exclusively, to the work and environment of universities, universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education, which can be classified as academic education. Common to these various institutions of higher education is the combination of research and teaching. The Better Science Initiative thus offers approaches for all university members to address the culture in their team or unit.

Why does Better Science want to make academia better?

The maxim of "excellence" is everywhere in higher education. Calls for excellent teaching, research, excellent universities and teams abound. But what is excellence? Who can do excellent teaching or research? The definition of excellence significantly influences the work of university members who want to do excellent research and teaching. At the same time, the concept of excellence is very blurred (Moore et al. 2017).

The Better Science Initiative assumes that the dimensions of leadership, evaluation, and research culture in particular offer the keys to successful science and teaching (see calls to action). For the Better Science Initiative, it is crucial that university members and academic institutions address the question of excellence and are aware of which model of excellence they follow. The Better Science Initiative advocates for a definition of excellence that offers diversity and equal opportunities and enables all to pursue excellent research.

Thus, the "better" in "Better Science Initiative" can be read as an imperative: to better science; to improve higher education, toward a culture in which quality is broadly defined.

Why is the Better Science Initiative specifically targeting academic leaders?

Establishing a good culture in higher education is a long process. Initiated as a bottom-up movement, the Better Science Initiative links the demands with concrete implementation possibilities at the structural level. Here, people with leadership responsibility are particularly tasked: They hold positions in which they can initiate and support change - in the team, in the institute, in the faculty or in other committees. Academic leaders thus have the responsibility to ensure a good academic culture in order to enable their employees to do excellent work.

What does the Better Science Initiative mean by research culture?

Research culture encompasses the accepted behaviors, values, experiences and expectations, attitudes, and the unwritten norms of communities in higher education. It shapes the environment in which university members operate. Research culture influences who conducts research and teaching, what research is funded, and how teaching is designed. Research culture affects a wide range of areas of the higher education system, such as scientific integrity, diversity of research groups, and inclusion of researchers in strategic decision-making, as well as career paths, recognition, appreciation, open science, collaboration, and mental and physical health of university staff.

A good research culture helps recruit the best scientists and faculty and fosters an innovative and creative academic environment. It is characterized by university members being valued for their diverse contributions to a research activity and helping each other succeed.
The many implicit rules and habits lived and repeated by university members are expressed in a variety of attitudes and norms. As difficult as it is to define research culture, it is to regulate it top-down. Thus, changing research culture can only happen with the support of the entire university community.

How can I publish my statement on the initiative?

Who is behind the Better Science Initiative?

Where can I find more information on these issues?

Publications and resources

(2025): What makes PhD students happy? Good supervision

Supervisors who invest in positive mentoring relationships with their PhD candidates also reap the benefits for their own research.

(2024): Schlussbericht des Kooperationsprojekts Better Science Initiative - Akademische Kultur im 21. Jahrhundert

Farinaz, Kradolfer (2022):

(2022): Statement of the Better Science Initiative on the „Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment”

The European Commission's "Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment" (ARA) was published in its final version in September 2022. The Better Science Initiative (BSI) fully supports the signing and implementation of the agreement.

(2022): Statement of the Better Science Initiative on the SSC report „Les Postdoctorants au sein des hautes écoles suisses“

In October 2022, the Swiss Science Council (SSC) published the report "Les Postdoctorants au sein des hautes écoles suisses" on the situation of postdoctoral researchers in Switzerland. The Better Science Initiative comments on this.

Aubert Bonn, Pinxten (2021): Rethinking success, integrity, and culture in research

Initiating changes in research climates takes time, effort, and broad coordination. Aubert Bonn and Pinxten show that assessments of success must become central to the integrity debate, approaches to promote better science should be revisited to address the impact that research climates have on research practices and research integrity rather than to capitalize on individual researcher’s compliance and personal responsibility, and, interactor dialogues and shared decision making are crucial to building joint objectives for change.

Bonanomi (2021): Schweizer Universitäten: unzumutbare Arbeitsbedingungen? (Audio)

https://www.srf.ch/audio/rende...

Mitchneck et al. (2021): A recipe for change: Creating a more inclusive academy

A more inclusive academic environment requires listening to the data and getting the leaders to head the transformation.

von Ascheraden (2021): Eintrag 5153

Beitrag zur Gesprächsrunde der Akademien Schweiz mit spannendem Diskussionsstoff darüber, was es braucht, um wissenschaftliche Leistung zu beurteilen und Exzellenz zu ermöglichen.

Sanctuary (2020): What researchers think about the culture they work in

Thousands of researchers have taken part in the largest ever survey into experiences of research culture. The results show it's time for change.

Frith (2020): Fast Lane to Slow Science

Fast science is bad for scientists and bad for science. In this article, the author offers initial suggestions on how we can move towards a healthier and more sustainable research culture.

(2020): Positionspapier der Akademie für kritische Wissenschaftskultur

The "Akademie für kritische Wissenschaftskultur" (AkW) is an independent organization that aims to promote a critical discourse on the dynamics and backgrounds of the transformation of scientific culture. The AkW initiates, encourages and expands this exchange with and between actors from science, politics, business and civil society. A fundamental question is what constitutes "good science". Starting from here, the aim is to develop beneficial structural and cultural-altering alternatives for action at the individual and institutional levels that are conducive to this idea.

Schwiter, Vorbrugg (2020): Ein Plädoyer für Slow Scholarship: Feministische Strategien für eine entschleunigte und bessere Wissenschaft

Under the label "Slow Scholarship" a movement has emerged both within and outside feminist geography that questions these logics. It calls for a deceleration and a fundamental reorientation of science.

Donzé (2020): Forschende der Universität Zürich fühlen sich ausgebeutet

A survey shows: free work is normal at a Zurich institute. It is not an isolated case.

(2020): SNF - Karriereförderung: Die gesamte Leistung der Forschenden zählt

Der SNF hat für seine Karriereförderung die DORA-Empfehlungen übernommen und weitere Kriterien angepasst. So macht er die Auswahl fairer und berücksichtigt unterschiedliche Karrierewege noch besser.

(2020): New recommendations to improve the status of women faculty

Ein Bericht über den Status der weiblichen Fakultätsangehörigen an der EPFL skizziert die gemeinsamen Herausforderungen, denen sich Professorinnen gegenübersehen, und gibt Empfehlungen für das weitere Vorgehen ab.

Hatch, Curry (2020): Research Culture: Changing how we evaluate research is difficult, but not impossible

This article outlines a framework for driving institutional change that was developed at a meeting convened by DORA and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The framework has four broad goals: understanding the obstacles to changes in the way research is assessed; experimenting with different approaches; creating a shared vision when revising existing policies and practices; and communicating that vision on campus and beyond.

(2020): Making Changes in the Academic Incentive System HIBAR Research Alliance

Recent academic and public discourse suggests society would benefit if more research was focused on addressing societal problems. One form of such research, described as Highly Integrative Basic and Responsive (HIBAR), is particularly impactful while also improving academic excellence.

Antoniadou, Crowder (eds.) (2020): Modern Day Challenges in Academia

Examining the modern day challenges faced by academics throughout their working lives, this book investigates the ways in which academic careers are changing, the reasons for these changes and their potential future impacts. Contributors utilise theoretical and empirical methods to provide international perspectives on the key issues confronting modern day academics.

Maljković (2019): The Email Charter: an idea worth spreading

10 ideas how we can counteract an overflowing inbox and enable everyone to communicate more productively.

Woolston (2019): PhDs: the tortuous truth

Doctoral students are largely satisfied with their work, but the pressure of the workload continues to take its toll, according to the Nature 2019 survey.

Farinaz et al. (2019):

L'excellence en tant que principe d'action dans les universités utilise une logique orientée vers l'économie et continue de désavantager les femmes dans le domaine scientifique.

Petri, Heikkinen (2018): Slow Science: Research and Teaching for Sustainable Praxis

The authors examine the significance of the slow science movement within the contemporary debate on higher education and scientific research.

(2018): SAGW: Next Generation. Für eine wirksame Nachwuchsförderung

The situation of young academics, especially in the humanities, but also in general, and especially of those with doctorates, has been unsatisfactory for some time. The situation of postdocs can only be improved by significant changes to the existing system.

Fankhauser, Anderegg (2017): Exzellenz ist vielfältig. Karrierewege an der Universität Bern

What exactly is that: Excellency? More than fifty successful members of the University of Berne talk about their careers, their everyday work, the hurdles they faced and the fortunes they made. The stories of those portrayed show how different career paths are - and how diverse excellence is. And they show that "excellent" scientific work cannot be measured and judged as easily as it sometimes seems.

Moore et al. (2017): “Excellence R Us”: university research and the fetishisation of excellence

The rhetoric of “excellence” is pervasive across the academy. But does “excellence” actually mean anything? Does this pervasive narrative of “excellence” do any good? Drawing on a range of sources we interrogate “excellence” as a concept and find that it has no intrinsic meaning in academia. Used in its current unqualified form it is a pernicious and dangerous rhetoric that undermines the very foundations of good research and scholarship

Nentwich, Kazich (2016): Meritokratie – Fakt oder Fiktion? Spannungsverhältnisse zwischen Exzellenz und Chancengleichheit

This analysis examines the relationship between discourses of scientific excellence and discourses of gender equality in the context of university education in Switzerland and Germany: How are these topics discussed, how are they related to each other? What is not said, or even omitted?

Peake, Mullings (2016): Critical reflections on mental and emotional distress in the academy

There is a growing number of students who seek mental health services. The authors discuss the question of what a critical obligation to cope with emotional and mental problems might look like in the academic context of the global North.

Berg et al. (2016): Producing anxiety in the neoliberal university

Auditing systems are key mechanisms of neoliberalization that produce unhealthy levels of anxiety and stress in academia.

Bürgi et al. (2016): 7 Aspekte des Lebens und Arbeitens an der philosophisch-historischen Fakultät der Universität Basel

In a research project, the project group investigated the possibilities and obstacles for a variety of lifestyles at the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the University of Basel. The results of the project show how these demands give rise to many ambivalences and contradictions.

Mountz et al. (2015): For Slow Scholarship: A Feminist Politics of Resistance through Collective Action in the Neoliberal University

The authors develop a feminist "ethics of care" that challenges the working conditions in the neoliberal university through collective action.

Kueffer (2015): „Slow Science“. Denkfreiräume statt Beschleunigung

Since the antiquity, scientific thinking has been that it requires leisure and freedom. Contemporary science is far removed from this, as it is under constant pressure to achieve rapidly applicable results. But there is resistance.

(2014): Charte de la désexcellence

The demand for "désexcellence" does not mean regretting some sort of academic “Golden Age” - which never existed - but rather opposing through our own practices the current misuse of universities.

Mendick (2014): Social Class, Gender and the Pace of Academic Life: What Kind of Solution is Slow?

In this article, Mendick suggests that we pause and ask ourselves what kind of solution the slow science movement offers for the current crisis of speed.

Berg, Seeber (2013): The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy

This paper explores the principles of the Slow Movement to counter work-stress among university and college teachers. Perhaps the most damaging effect of corporatisation in the universities is that individual educators feel paralysed in the face of overwhelming odds. The authors' focus on individuals and their own professional practice is conceived as political resistance to corporatisation.

Farinaz, Kradolfer (2013):

(2010): The Slow Science Manifesto

Bear with us, while we think.

Edmondson et al. (2008): Is Yours a Learning Organization?

The authors propose three building blocks required for creating learning organizations: 1) a supportive environment, 2) concrete learning processes, and 3) leadership that reinforces learning. They introduce a diagnostic tool to determine how well your team, department, or entire company is performing with each building block.

Ylijoki, Mäntylä (2003): Conflicting Time Perspectives in Academic Work

This article examines the diversity of time perspectives in academic work. The conflicts identified are closely related to the far-reaching changes that have taken place in recent years at the macro level of higher education.

The slow science manifesto

The academic world is undergoing a radical change. New forms of management, funding and goal setting are changing the conditions of research. These developments are being challenged in various places around the world. The network of Belgian researchers shares many of the ideas of this movement.

Leiden Manifesto: 10 principles to guide research evaluation

To support researchers and managers, five experts led by Diana Hicks, professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Paul Wouters, director of CWTS at Leiden University, have proposed 10 principles for the measurement of research performance: the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics published as a comment in Nature.

Kaeser Fast Science: Wie die Gier nach raschem Erkenntnisgewinn die Forschung kaputt macht

Wissenschafter produzieren Wissen, und das immer schneller. Was dabei auf der Strecke bleibt, ist das Ethos der Forschung. Doch langsam formiert sich eine Gegenbewegung.

Better Science Initiative: Jahresbericht 2020-2021 und Perspektive 2022-2024

Signing the Better Science Initiative as organisation

This document lays out what the signature of the calls to action as organisation entails.

Links

Equal Opportunities Office, University of Bern
The Equal Opportunities Office of the University of Bern is committed to fair employment procedures, the equal opportunity promotion of young academics, the compatibility of work, study and family, an unbiased choice of studies and offers counselling and courses on diversity and inclusion.
Karrierewege: Exzellenz ist vielfältig
What is excellence? This question is the focus of this page. Here you will find portraits of over fifty successful members of the University of Bern. They talk about their career paths, their everyday working lives, hurdles and fortunes in their careers and tell us what matters to them in the academy.
Differenzsensible Lehre
Differenzsensible Lehre zielt darauf ab, Diskriminierungen an Hochschulen entgegenzuwirken. Sie will Differenzverhältnisse, Ausschlüsse, Barrieren verstehen und diese abbauen. Auf dieser Webseite finden Sie kompakt aufgearbeitet Ideen, Wege und Impulse für eine differenzsensible Lehre. Die Webseite bietet vielfältige Materialien und Ressourcen zur Frage, wie eine differenzsensible Lehre aussehen könnte. Die Webseite kann sowohl fürs Selbststudium als auch in der Lehre und hochschuldidaktischen Weiterbildung verwendet werden. Die Webseite ist in Koproduktion der Pädagogischen Hochschule FHNW, der Universität Basel und der Universität Bern entstanden.
Doing Diversity: Best-Practices der Schweizer Hochschulen zu den Themen Diversity, Chancengleichheit und Inklusion
DOING DIVERSITY offers you a collection of best practices on diversity, equality and inclusion at Swiss higher education institutions. Find out more about interesting projects, relevant publications, effective strategies and policies in the toolbox.
SAGW - Akademische Karrierewege
The SAGW advocates changes in the existing system so that the situation of young academics can be improved.
Petition "Against Precariousness in Academia and for the Future of Swiss Higher Education"
The petition calls on the Federal Assembly to take concrete measures that compel higher education institutions to create a significant number of permanent positions for postdoctoral researchers in order to improve the working conditions of researchers, protect their health and family life, and to ensure the excellence of scientific research in Switzerland.
Stable Jobs - Better Science: Campaign of the VPOD
The VPOD union is campaigning for more permanent positions at Swiss universities to combat precarity, abuse of power and constant competition. The VPOD stands up for healthy researchers and better science.