A Swiss foundation with global reach and a private-public partnership working from Geneva, GESDA was started in September 2019 to develop and promote anticipatory science and diplomacy for greater impact and multilateral effectiveness.

1 Vision Use the future to build the present
3 Products Developed in 24 months and going public on October 7, 2021

GESDA Science Breakthrough Radar

In partnership with Fondation pour Genève

3 fundamental questions for tomorrow of interest for society debated by 8 scholars from philosophy, humanities and the arts
4 scientific frontier issues, 24 emerging topics and 216 breakthrough predictions at 5, 10 and 25 years of interest for science
23 global challenges of interest for diplomacy

Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipation Summit

16 sessions based on the first edition of the Science Breakthrough Radar to help address 23 global challenges
1000 onsite and online participants

GESDA Digital Interactive Global Sounding Board

11 million social media posts analysed to take the pulse of society
543 scientists involved in Switzerland and throughout the world in the first edition of the Science Breakthrough Radar out of 4000 scientists invited to contribute .
2 Initiatives
- Joint GESDA-XPrize Quantum Contest.
- Anticipatory Science & Diplomacy Capacity Building Initiative in partnership with Asuera Stiftung of Hurden, Schwyz
8 Task Forces with 120 leaders from GESDAs Academic and Diplomacy Fora engaged in identifying pathways for solutions
9 Million Swiss francs raised from public (3.6) and private (5.4) partners after 2 years of operations
2 Founders The governments of the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Geneva in collaboration with the City of Geneva
1 Swiss and Global Community working together

GESDA’s Structure

GESDA is directed by an international nine-member Foundation Board of Directors, chaired by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Vice-President of the World Economic Forum (WEF); Chairman Emeritus of Nestlé SA) and vice-chaired by Patrick Aebischer (former President of the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne — EPFL), both appointed by the Swiss Federal Council.

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe

Chairman of the Board of DirectorsGESDA

Patrick Aebischer

Vice-Chairman of the Board of DirectorsGESDA

Samantha Besson

ProfessorCollege de France

Micheline Calmy-Rey

Former President of the Swiss Confederation, Visiting ProfessorUniversity of Geneva

Matthias Egger

President, National Research CouncilSwiss National Science Foundation

Sir Jeremy Farrar

DirectorWellcome Trust

Fabiola Gianotti

Director-GeneralCERN

Mamokgethi Phakeng

Vice-ChancellorUniversity of Cape Town

Chorh Chuan Tan

Chief Health Scientist and Executive Director of the new Office for Healthcare TransformationSingapore Ministry of Health

Ex Officio

Alexandre Fasel

Ambassador, Special Representative for Science Diplomacy in GenevaSwiss Confederation

An Academic Forum presides over the anticipatory science scouting, chaired by Joël Mesot (President of ETHZ) and Martin Vetterli (President of EPFL):

Joël Mesot

PresidentETHZ

Martin Vetterli

PresidentEPFL

Initial members of the Academic Forum

Emmanuel Abbé

ProfessorforMathematical Data ScienceEPFL

Olaf Blanke

Bertarelli Foundation Chair of Cognitive NeuroprostheticsEPFL

Jean-Pierre Danthine

ProfessorEPFL

Gerald Haug

Professor for Climate GeochemistryETHZ

Dirk Helbing

Professor of Computational Social ScienceETHZ

Samira Kiani

Co-FounderSafeGen Therapeutics

Wendy Queen

Assistant Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Functional Inorganic MaterialsEPFL Valais Wallis

Berend Smit

Professor of Chemical EngineeringEPFL

Matthias Troyer

Distinguished ScientistMicrosoft

Rüdiger L. Urbanke

Professor of Communication TheoryEPFL

Effy Vayena

Global ExpertHarvard Medical School

A Diplomacy Forum presides over the accelerated design of solutions to emerging challenges, chaired by Michael Møller (former Director General of the UN Office in Geneva and former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations):

Michael Møller

former Under Secretary-General of the UN, Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva from 2013 to 2019Chairman, GESDA Diplomacy Forum

Representatives of politics – diplomatic circles – geopolitics

Martin Chungong

Secretary GeneralInter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)

Sean Cleary

Executive Vice-ChairFutureWorld Foundation

Jürg Lauber

Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations OfficeSwiss Confederation

Enrico Letta

Italian Democratic Party; President, Jacques Delors Institute; Former Prime-Minister of ItalyFormer Dean, School of International Affairs, Science Po

Representatives of transversal international organisations

Michelle Bachelet

High Commissioner for Human RightsUnited Nations

Peter Maurer

PresidentInternational Committee of the Red Cross

Mami Mizutori

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction / Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk ReductionUnited Nations

Sergio Mujica

Secretary GeneralInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Guy Ryder

Director-GeneralInternational Labour Organization

Daren Tang

Director-GeneralWorld Intellectual Property Organization

Representatives of the community of chief scientists

Lidia Brito

Regional Director for Sciences in Latin America and CaribbeanUNESCO

Sir Peter Gluckman

Chair of the Advisory Group of the International Network of Government Science Advice (INGSA)President-elect International Science Council

Representatives of impact and citizens communities

Anousheh Ansari

CEO XPRIZE Foundation

Jim Hagemann Snabe

ChairmanSiemens AG

David Goodhart

Journalist / AuthorNone

Jayathma Wickramanayake

Nanjira Sambuli

Policy Analyst / Advocacy StrategistNone

An Impact Fund currently under development, will seed-fund the implementation of those solutions.

An Executive Team in charge of the operationalisation of the GESDA 2020-2022 Roadmap and providing support to the above-mentioned organs, under the lead of Secretary General Stéphane Decoutère.