Celebrating ten years of the SEC

On 11 August 2020, friends, colleagues, and partners of the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) tuned in from all around the world to celebrate the SEC's tenth birthday. The virtual celebration began with a significant video message from Prof. Joel Mesot, President of ETH Zurich. Prof. Mesot conveyed his wishes to the SEC on its achievements in the past ten years and expressed his anticipation for what is to come in the future.

The video message was followed by a welcome address by Prof. Gerhard Schmitt, director of the SEC and Thomas Rufener, managing director of the SEC. The directors began by looking back into the initial drivers for establishing the SEC. According to Prof. Schmitt the first reason was to conduct research out of Switzerland due to climate and geographical differences with the aim of general benefits for science and society. The second driver was to establish a "trans-disciplinary and trans-institutional research institute to tackle the emerging challenges of urbanisation where it happens and when it happens". The last driver was to grow an academic network outside of Europe to support the researchers and students.

Prof. Schmitt further spoke about the early successes and challenges they faced at the beginning of the SEC such as building trust with partners in Singapore, hiring of employees and navigating a "start-up" environment. Thomas then spoke of his first thoughts upon joining the SEC in 2019. He highlighted the inter-disciplinary nature of the SEC to be very interesting, eye-opening, and a key differentiating factor. From a management perspective, with the expansion of the SEC, the administrative units are also constantly improving.

Prof. Schmitt also talks about how the research ecosystem has evolved over the ten years with more frequent grant calls, which allow researchers to independently pursue their research interests. Thomas the put forth his hope for increased interdisciplinary collaboration between the programmes in the SEC to jointly find solutions for emerging problems. He also mentioned expanding industry collaborations and to provide researchers with academic and non-academic skills for their future. Prof. Schmitt then concluded with his hopes for the SEC to grow academically and strategically.

After a highlight video of the 10 years of the SEC, Dr Lim Khiang Wee, Executive Director of CREATE, addressed the audience. Dr Lim spoke of how the SEC was one of the first few research institutes to be part of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and how it has grown from just one main programme to three main programmes and many other projects currently. Dr Lim also emphasised on the SEC's pioneering efforts and strong collaboration with local universities and government agencies.

Cheryl Song, Deputy director for programmes and partnerships, then led a panel discussion with Dr Iris Belle, SEC alumni; Leon Gaw, Research Associate at Natural Capital Singapore; Dr Sergio Ordonez, Senior Researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) programme; Asst. Prof. Forrest Meggers, SEC alumni; and Dr Peter Lustenberger, SEC alumni, on their journey in the SEC. This was followed by a live trivia segment about the SEC where guests from all around the world competed in real-time.

As we approached the end of the programme, Prof. Detlef Gunther, Co-chair of SEC governing board and Vice President for research at ETH Zurich, gave a speech about his vision for the future of the SEC. Prof. Gunther spoke of how the research themes in SEC are aligned with ETH Zurich's response to current global societal needs, leveraging on its core competencies. Prof. Gunther also highlighted how the SEC complements and supports ETH's mandate to teach, research, and transfer knowledge to society. He mentioned how there may be opportunities for the ETH and the SEC to jointly research on global challenges, educate the next generation, translate their findings into society and industry, and finally create an impact on sustainability.

Prof. Schmitt and Thomas then took the stage again to deliver their closing remarks and convey their gratitude and wishes to all who made the achievements of the SEC possible.