Diplomacy Day at the Bellinzona Campus

On 10 August 2023, 240 foreign and Swiss ambassadors and diplomats met for Diplomacy Day, the Locarno Film Festival's customary gathering. The Day made a stop at the Bellinzona Campus, home of Bios+, facilitating the encounter between authorities, ambassadors and representatives of USI, IRB and IOR.

In her introductory speech, State Councillor Marina Carobbio Guscetti highlighted the many similarities between the Locarno Film Festival and the Bellinzona research institutes affiliated to USI: although they operate in different fields, both represent a flagship of the Canton of Ticino in terms of dynamism and flair for innovation. Following this, Bios+ President Prof. Franco Cavalli introduced the association and then gave the floor respectively to Prof. Davide Robbiani, Director of the IRB, and Prof. Carlo Catapano, Director of the IOR, who gave an informative presentation on the research activities of their respective institutes.

In her speech, USI Rector Prof. Luisa Lambertini addressed the Swiss and international diplomatic community in the room, appealing to them to support the university's efforts: "As many as one-third of current Swiss scientific publications are joint works with researchers from EU countries. Switzerland's lack of association with the European Union's Horizon Europe research programme poses a number of challenges for both the Swiss academic centre and the universities with which we have been collaborating for decades. Therefore, I urge Swiss and international diplomacy to continue the valuable work to find a solution as soon as possible and put researchers in the best possible position to pursue their research unhindered."

The event concluded with a tour of the facility and the laboratories.

Bios+ is a non-profit association aiming to promote, support and coordinate the scientific research and teaching activities of its members in view of the establishment in Bellinzona of a national and international research centre for life sciences. Bios+ was founded on 21 July 2021 with two members, the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) and the Institute for Oncology Research (IOR) both affiliated to USI and based in Bellinzona.