‘Digi­tal sove­reig­nty doesn’t have to mean isolation’

In Janu­ary 2025, you laun­ched a new funding program, ‘Digi­ta­liza­tion & Demo­cracy’. Why now, of all times?

The issue is more topi­cal than ever. Advan­cing digi­ta­liza­tion pres­ents enorm­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties, but also risks: The spread of misin­for­ma­tion, the influence of social media on opinion forma­tion and the weak­e­ning of inde­pen­dent media as the fourth estate – and central actor of a func­tio­ning demo­cracy. As a grant giving foun­da­tion for infor­ma­tion and commu­ni­ca­tion tech­no­logy (ICT), we don’t just want to support tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ments. We also want to under­stand the impact of digi­ta­li­sa­tion on society. We want to support rese­arch projects that inves­ti­gate the rela­ti­onship between demo­cracy and digi­ta­liza­tion and, at the same time, deve­lop possi­ble solu­ti­ons using tech­no­logy. We have found the ideal project part­ner for this in the Stif­tung Merca­tor Schweiz foun­da­tion. In addi­tion to our tech­no­lo­gi­cal perspec­tive, it also contri­bu­tes social science and socio-poli­ti­cal expertise.

Did poli­ti­cal deve­lo­p­ments in the US and the rela­ted with­dra­wal of USAID funding influence your decis­ion on the new funding program?

The timing was purely coin­ci­den­tal. But deve­lo­p­ments in the US have shown how tech­no­logy and geopo­li­ti­cal power are inex­tri­ca­bly intert­wi­ned today. Large tech compa­nies and their repre­sen­ta­ti­ves are incre­asingly coming to the side of poli­ti­cal decis­ion-makers – as was evident at Donald Trump’s inau­gu­ra­tion.  This poten­ti­ally exacer­ba­tes the afore­men­tio­ned risks of digi­ta­liza­tion, which put pres­sure on demo­cra­tic proces­ses. These deve­lo­p­ments have given our program an extra boost and shown that it is needed right now. The response was strong as a result: More than 130 appli­ca­ti­ons were recei­ved. A selec­tion is curr­ently in the concept phase. The final decis­ion is made in late summer, with the first projects start­ing in October.

As part of the Respon­si­ble AI program, the Hasler Foun­da­tion is funding various rese­arch projects in the field of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI). What is your aim in doing this?

We are curr­ently funding nine rese­arch projects at Swiss compu­ter science univer­si­ties that are deve­lo­ping new tech­ni­cal foun­da­ti­ons for relia­ble and respon­si­ble AI systems. AI has long been part of our ever­y­day lives. Ever since the breakth­rough of gene­ra­tive models such as ChatGPT, people who were barely aware of it before have been using AI on a daily basis. The more our acti­vi­ties and decis­i­ons are influen­ced or auto­ma­ted by AI, the more essen­tial it is that these systems remain trans­pa­rent and traceable in accordance with our ethi­cal values.

The Hasler Foun­da­tion played a role early on in shaping semi­con­duc­tor rese­arch in Switz­er­land – what paral­lels do you see between its commit­ment back then and today’s chal­lenges in the field of AI? 

Without the achie­ve­ments of semi­con­duc­tor rese­arch, today’s AI systems would not exist. Their perfor­mance is directly linked to the compu­ting power available – which in turn is based on state-of-the-art semi­con­duc­tor tech­no­lo­gies. Deve­lo­ping tech­no­logy is still expen­sive and resource-inten­sive. In the semi­con­duc­tor rese­arch, it was specia­li­sed devices; today, it is mainly compu­ting power and high-perfor­mance chips that become a bott­len­eck – both in rese­arch and in appli­ca­tion. At the same time, Switz­er­land faces global compe­ti­tion for talent and expertise.

Even today, the exch­ange of know­ledge and tech­no­logy between rese­ar­chers and compa­nies in diffe­rent count­ries is essen­tial. Switz­er­land relies on inter­na­tio­nal colla­bo­ra­tion for AI rese­arch. It isn’t just the history of semi­con­duc­tor tech­no­logy that shows early invest­ments in key tech­no­lo­gies are crucial for future prospe­rity – this also applies to many other tech­no­lo­gies, as is evident today with AI.

Rese­arch is key, but is often not enough on its own. How do you ensure that the projects being funded also make an impact on society?

It is crucial that part­ners from the field are invol­ved from the outset. In our ‘Digi­ta­liza­tion & Demo­cracy’ funding program, that’s the prere­qui­site: Every project must be inter­di­sci­pli­nary and cross-sector. Rese­ar­chers work directly with imple­men­ta­tion part­ners, such as NGOs, civil society orga­ni­sa­ti­ons and fede­ral agen­cies. As a result, they trans­late rese­arch findings into concrete, soci­ally rele­vant solu­ti­ons with a direct impact on Switz­er­land as quickly and effec­tively as possible.

But not every project has an imme­diate impact. Basic rese­arch in parti­cu­lar thri­ves on not start­ing with a speci­fic objec­tive. Various rese­arch achie­ve­ments only made their impact felt on society many years later. That’s why, as a foun­da­tion, we deli­bera­tely support risky rese­arch projects – even if the direct impact is not imme­dia­tely visi­ble or measurable.

Today, tech­no­logy and geopo­li­ti­cal power are inex­tri­ca­bly intertwined.

Sinja Chris­tiani, Mana­ging Direc­tor Hasler Foundation

How can these projects contri­bute to Switzerland’s tech­no­lo­gi­cal sovereignty?

Initi­ally, I would like to stress that sove­reig­nty does­n’t have to mean isola­tion. As a nation, we have built up our current prospe­rity largely through inter­na­tio­nal coope­ra­tion. We are also so globally inter­con­nec­ted today that complete inde­pen­dence is neither reali­stic nor desi­ra­ble. Rather, it is a matter of keeping depen­dency within a reasonable frame­work. Ulti­m­ately, it is a ques­tion of risk manage­ment, simi­lar to diver­si­fy­ing a port­fo­lio. There are also geopo­li­ti­cal factors and ques­ti­ons about data protec­tion and cyber­se­cu­rity: What happens to our data? Who can access it in an emergency?

Above all, howe­ver, digi­tal sove­reig­nty starts with each and every indi­vi­dual. Those who use tech­no­lo­gies need to under­stand how they work and how to deal with them. In addi­tion to educa­tion and aware­ness, it’s crucial to encou­rage deve­lo­ping talent, parti­cu­larly in STEM subjects (science, tech­no­logy, engi­nee­ring and mathe­ma­tics) and ‘future skills’ such as criti­cal, networked thin­king and emotio­nal intel­li­gence. If we get young people exci­ted about it, we can lay the foun­da­ti­ons for digi­tal citizenship.

Switz­er­land is heavily depen­dent on digi­tal services from abroad. What does this mean for Switzerland’s future as a place to work?

The large tech­no­logy plat­forms become unbeata­ble due to their scala­bi­lity, thus shif­ting the balance of power. Turno­ver that used to be gene­ra­ted locally is now flowing to global tech giants. Examp­les include adver­ti­sing reve­nues from local news­pa­pers that suddenly end up with Goog­leAds, while hotel reve­nues go to AirBnB, and taxi margins go to Uber. Nevert­hel­ess, there are Swiss plat­forms, parti­cu­larly in the B2C sector, that have been able to hold their own against global compe­ti­tors. Many Swiss people prefer to use Twint instead of PayPal, sell their items on Ricardo instead of eBay, and shop at Gala­xus rather than Amazon. But even these compa­nies are often depen­dent on foreign cloud services. In addi­tion, AI could auto­mate many on-site jobs.

For Switz­er­land as a place to work, it is ther­e­fore crucial that we conduct rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment in the coun­try. We need a strong tech­no­logy sector that bene­fits not just from big global tech compa­nies but also from the local rese­arch and talent pool – thus retai­ning a certain degree of inde­pen­dence. The ques­tion for Switz­er­land should ther­e­fore be: How do we ensure that we conti­nue to bene­fit from the crea­tion of new jobs and reve­nue chan­nels through AI in future? And how do we main­tain our prospe­rity in line with our values?

How can phil­an­thropy create space for inno­va­tion here? 

In contrast to the public sector and commer­cial stake­hol­ders, the phil­an­thro­pic sector is by its very nature able to take grea­ter risks. Phil­an­thropy can support projects that test new digi­tal approa­ches and deve­lop inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons – even if they aren’t (yet) econo­mic­ally attrac­tive. Free­dom is needed to pave new ways, espe­ci­ally in the field of digi­tal inno­va­tion. There are various stake­hol­ders in Switz­er­land who are tack­ling the issue in a very active and cons­truc­tive way. Phil­an­thropy can boost these initia­ti­ves and increase their impact.

An exci­ting inter­na­tio­nal exam­ple is the ’Euro­Stack’ report, which was published in Febru­ary 2025 by the Bertels­mann Stif­tung (with support from the Merca­tor Stif­tung (Germany), CEPS, and the UCL Insti­tute for Inno­va­tion and Public Purpose). The report shows a possi­ble path to Euro­pean tech­no­lo­gi­cal sove­reig­nty. The path descri­bed is deli­bera­tely concei­ved as an indus­trial policy moonshot: visio­nary, risky, expen­sive – with invest­ments of EUR 300 billion over ten years. Is that unrea­li­stic and naive? Maybe. But it is precis­ely these kinds of bold initia­ti­ves that are needed – because the report itself helps to struc­ture the discus­sion and to raise the issue more effec­tively among the public and put it on the poli­ti­cal agenda.

What would you like to see from the poli­ti­cal sphere in order to reduce digi­tal depen­dency and streng­then this space?

The poli­ti­cal sphere can achieve a great deal, even without an indus­trial policy. For exam­ple, the new Fede­ral Act on the Use of Elec­tro­nic Means for the Comple­tion of Govern­men­tal Duties (EMBAG) recently marked a step towards open source solu­ti­ons. This can not only reduce the depen­dency of the IT indus­try and the public on parti­cu­lar provi­ders, but also promote inno­va­tion and reduce IT costs in the long term.

As has alre­ady been mentio­ned, tech­no­lo­gi­cal deve­lo­p­ment is chan­ging the balance of power. These shifts tran­s­cend poli­ti­cal boun­da­ries and, in the medium term, may also unsettle our social and poli­ti­cal systems. This is where the poli­ti­cal sphere needs to come into play. It must offer solu­ti­ons that accom­pany us into the future and enable progress – not solu­ti­ons that cling nost­al­gi­cally to the past and block progress.

Finally, the poli­ti­cal sphere also plays a key role in promo­ting deve­lo­ping talent (STEM or future skills). Phil­an­thropy can provide an impe­tus here, but the long-term respon­si­bi­lity lies with the public sector. If we want to safe­guard the digi­tal skills and talent of tomor­row, we need a Swiss educa­tion policy that adapts to new needs and circum­s­tances and thinks ahead.

About
Sinja Chris­tiani has been Mana­ging Direc­tor of the Hasler Foun­da­tion since August 2024. The trai­ned compu­ter scien­tist was enthu­si­a­stic about tech­no­logy from an early age – she programmed her first website at the age of 14. Since then, she has deve­lo­ped her exper­tise in data analy­sis, tech leader­ship and stra­te­gic corpo­rate manage­ment at IBM, Deloitte and the Zurich Insu­rance Group. Her parti­cu­lar inte­rest lies in the inter­play between tech­no­logy, inno­va­tion and society – a focus she is now pursuing in her role at the Hasler Foundation.