Mission Statement

Our principles

We conduct research in a wide range of disciplines in the natural sciences and mathematics. With our excellent basic research and its application, we actively advance the development of science, the environment and society with comprehensive solutions. The Faculty of Science (MNF) at the University of Zurich offers students and staff state-of-the-art working, research, teaching and learning conditions. Through our wide-ranging research, research-based teaching and the interdisciplinary training of our students and junior researchers, we make an effective contribution as a faculty.

Our guiding principles

State-of-the-art: Embedded in the comprehensive University of Zurich (UZH), the Faculty of Science (MNF) offers students and staff outstanding working, research, teaching and learning conditions.

Cooperative: Based on our excellent basic research, we promote inter- and transdisciplinary research through collaboration with a wide range of other disciplines at university, local, national and international level.

Evidence-based: We rely on a fact-based research culture, diverse teams and advance science and society through our wide-ranging basic research and its application. Our research and the comprehensive training of our students and (post)doctoral students are our most effective tools for this.

Open and collaborative: In line with our mission, we share the knowledge we have gathered and developed with the public. Building on our outstanding basic research and through interdisciplinary and multi-layered collaborations, we develop comprehensive solutions for current challenges.

Relevant to society: Translating our basic research into integrative collaboration can provide efficient answers to pressing challenges such as climate change, energy transition, diseases or biodiversity loss and the resulting risks to society. Our aim is to prepare our graduates in the best possible way to take on responsible roles in society and to actively shape the future.

Integrative, reflective and approachable: When recruiting faculty members, we are guided by our values, take individual track records into account and make collaborative decisions based on explicit and comprehensible criteria. We build on an open culture of error, which is based on the appreciation of critical thinking and the acceptance of responsibility for our actions. We also live these convictions through institutional participation. All bodies (students, junior academics, advanced researchers and teaching staff as well as administrative and technical staff) and the professorial members of our faculty are fully involved in decision-making processes. Our bottom-up approach and transparent communication ensure that everyone's concerns and needs are heard. We strive for the sustainable use of natural, personal and financial resources. This sustainable working environment promotes mental and physical health and enables an individual work-life balance.

Our values

Fostering potential to shape the world | At MNF, we support our students, lecturers and researchers so that they are equipped for their tasks. This is how we advance research and develop comprehensive solutions for current and future complex challenges. It is important to us to create transparency, orientation and clarity of expectations, to reflect on our actions and thus promote a common understanding.

→ Numerous former and current members of the Faculty have changed the world with their discoveries and inventions. And they continue to do so as researchers and as members of countless expert committees, specialist societies and the SNSF Research Council.

Strong through diversity | We are convinced that outstanding socially relevant and academic achievements can be made by many. When assessing achievements, we focus on individual impact rather than impact factor, because good solutions arise from a wide range of ideas.

→ More than 1'500 people from almost 90 countries work at the MNF and around a third of our students come from more than 100 countries. We are therefore as diverse as our research, teaching and the wide variety of career paths that open up.

Innovative with brain and heart | Good ideas are born in the head. It's the heart that decides what to do with them. With flat hierarchies, constructive exchange and respectful collaboration in diverse teams, we offer the best conditions for innovation in science and research.

→ On average, a patent is registered once a month at the MNF and a spin-off is founded every four months. We work closely and effectively with stakeholders from industry, for example in the development of medicines and software.

Interdisciplinarity as a driving force | Looking beyond the boundaries of our own knowledge provides new insights and broadens our thinking. Building on our excellent basic research, we know that dialog and exchange with other disciplines are requirements of our time, to which we respond with interdisciplinarity in studies, teaching and research. In this way, we contribute to finding efficient answers to pressing challenges.

→ Our major and minor system allows students to tailor their studies to their own strengths and interests, and our interdisciplinary specialists are in demand both nationally and internationally.

Networking to get further | We are convinced that interdisciplinary and comprehensive solutions are needed to tackle the complex challenges of our time.

→ The MNF research groups are networked nationally and internationally. Our partners include, for example, the University Hospital Zurich, the ETH Domain and federal research institutions such as PSI, WSL, Empa, Eawag and Agroscope, as well as CERN, the European Space Agency and leading universities and institutions worldwide.

Institutional participation | We are convinced that the performance of an institution is based on the active participation of all its members. Our members include administrative and technical staff, advanced researchers and teaching staff, professors, students and young academics on an equal footing.

→ At MNF, the bodies are involved in decisions at all levels and have a say - from the appointment committees to the Faculty Assembly.

Shaping the future sustainably | Anyone who wants to help shape the future must ensure that we have a future worth living. The complex challenges of our time have a concrete impact on our entire planet. We therefore strive for the sustainable use of natural, personal and financial resources.

→ The Faculty's own Sustainability working group is the creative and committed driving force behind projects that make our research and teaching, as well as our campus, more sustainable. Although we are not yet where we want to be, we are making good progress with the “green labs” and our research on sustainability topics, for example.

Open science for equal opportunities | Limited knowledge exchange also limits the possible solutions. Free access to knowledge is an important building block for equal opportunities.

→ We live Open Science. On average, more than 75% of all publications involving the MNF are made accessible without fee barriers - and the trend is rising. We also focus on free access when publishing data and code.

The mission statement of the Faculty of Science (PDF, 82 KB)