75 years on from their adoption, the Geneva Conventions remain as vital as ever.

An interactive architecture game using materials sourced from the scraps of London’s workshops is coming to the Design Museum as part of the London Design Festival on 22 September. Aimed at adults and children alike, REPLAY questions reuse and its aesthetics, whilst demonstrating how playfulness invites creativity. The game, created by AA Material Arcade and Swiss architect Sébastien Tripod, encourages players to explore shapes and textures and collectively create a single sculpture.

Swiss-Romanian author Dana Grigorcea speaks to New Books in German about her prize-winning novel Dracula Park, translated into English by Imogen Taylor in 2023. Dana Grigorcea will be appearing at the Edge-Lit Festival in Derby in September 2024.

During the Farnborough International Airshow 2024, the Swiss Business Hub UK (SBH UK) led a fact-finding mission for Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs represented included consultants, parts manufacturers, AI innovators and drone designers from across Switzerland. SBH UK and Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) co-orchestrated three site visits for the delegation and key tours at the Airshow itself. The mission was of high networking value and contributed to the strongest Swiss presence at the Airshow in several years.

Swiss Fintech startups led by female founders were part of an international cohort that visited London to meet with financial institutions and investors.

Since 2019, Hereford College of Arts has organised an annual festival bringing together illustrators, printmakers and artists for a day of talks and display, showcasing the work of local established and emergent creatives. Previous events have featured talks and workshops by Molly Fairhurst, John Broadley, Design for Today, Stephen Fowler, Russel Taysom, Pencil Pot Club and many more. For the 2024 edition, artist and curator of "Printing in Swiss" exhibition Ed Catley invited Zurich-based Australian-German-Swiss artist and cartoonist Lawrence Grimm. As a result of this collaboration, Lawrence Grimm offered a workshop in HCA’s brand new Digital Hub to an audience including participants aged from 9 to 60. The goal was to explore how reducing an illustration can evoke an emotion and intensify a message. Participants discovered ways to draw small single panel stories using digital techniques and became more familiar with BITMAP digital format.

The inaugural Synthetic & Engineering Biology British-Swiss Summit took place over two days in Bristol and London, focusing on how engineering biology technologies can drive innovation and forge collaborations between Switzerland and the UK.

25 years ago, a Swiss-UK team made history with the first non-stop balloon flight around the world.

Representatives from the UK public and private sectors joined us in Switzerland for a multi-day working visit covering digital trade and customs. Here are the highlights.

These days, it’s common to hear “AI” and “transforming” in the same sentence – whether it’s finance, manufacturing or even finding out if your cat is angry… However, as global financial hubs, the question of AI’s role in the future of finance is of particular importance for both Switzerland and the UK.

Deputy Ambassador Chantal Moser was presented with the WPP BAV "Best Country" award for Switzerland at a reception in the UK House of Commons, hosted by Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP and attended by Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake.

Ambassador Markus Leitner joined the Zünd family, staff and guests at the grand opening of the Swiss digital cutting company’s new UK headquarters in Letchworth Garden City.

BEAR, by Swiss filmmaker Morgane Frund, has been selected for In Short, Europe. This film festival celebrates European short filmmaking and is organized by EUNIC London will take place in Glasgow on 20 and 21 April and in London from 26 to 28 April.

The Embassy marked Wales Week and St David’s Day with our annual reception, joined by Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens and representatives from Llandudno and Champéry – towns twinned since 2022.

In March, the 88 members of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie (OIF) celebrate the French language they share and the cultural and linguistic diversity they represent. We are proud to be part of this celebration and to collaborate throughout the year with the Groupe Francophonie UK to promote the French language and French-speaking cultures in the UK.

To mark the launch of the Accord 30 report, the Embassy team joined experts and colleagues from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and Conciliation Resources to discuss adaptation and innovation in peace mediation.

Rebecca Gisler won the Swiss Prize for Literature 2022 with her debut novel About Uncle, a family drama unlike any other. Rebecca came to Bath and London to discuss About Uncle, published by Peirene Press and translated from French by Jordan Stump. She also talked about her exploration of isolation, dependency and strange dietary habits as well as language and translation in French, German and English.

A series of events – along with an official visit to London by members of both the State and Grand Councils of Ticino – marked the 150th birthday of the Unione Ticinese, one of the oldest Swiss clubs in the UK.

The Embassy’s Science and Innovation team welcomed entrepreneurship students from five universities in western Switzerland for a study visit to Oxford and London.

Elisa Shua Dusapin is visiting five English cities to present her recently translated novel, which explores collaboration, creativity and belonging whilst immersing the reader in her trademark dreamlike prose. Interview in English and en français, to mark the Mois de la Francophonie.

In 2023, the Embassy’s Science and Innovation team welcomed a record 11 Swiss companies to the UK via Innosuisse Start-Up Internationalisation camps.

Switzerland has topped the Global Innovation Index for the past thirteen years. Maintaining this position as the “uncontested innovation world champion” requires not just innovative firms, but a wider creative eco-system – one with education at its heart.

Between the signing of the Berne Financial Services Agreement and attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt found time for another Swiss stopover – joining Ambassador Markus Leitner and 18 Swiss business leaders for lunch at the Embassy in early January.

From June to September 2023, the Architecture on Stage programme curated by the Architecture Foundation in partnership with Barbican Centre welcomed five emerging Swiss practices, whose lectures were presented as a series called afterFORM. Each of the practices, 8000 agency, Bessire Winter, Schneider Türtscher, Truwant+Rodet+ and Parity Group is representative of a growing tendency in Swiss architecture to embrace topics including the reuse of existing fabric, urban policy and civil action.

The Swiss Business Hub UK+Ireland once again held its annual high-performance engineering fact-finding mission at Silverstone for exchanges in motorsports. Since 2018, the delegation has toured the UK’s legendary “motorsports valley” five times with the Business Hub.

A London roadshow of the best Swiss fintech startups showcased Switzerland’s strength in financial innovation.

A UK roadshow of the best young Swiss fintech startups, showcasing Switzerland’s strength in financial innovation.

On 13 November 2023 the third round of strategic dialogue between Switzerland and the UK took place in London. The discussions centered on the intensive and diverse bilateral relations between Switzerland and the UK, current international affairs, and European matters. The primary objective of the discussions was to enhance political, economic and scientific cooperation between the two nations.

On 27 October 2023 the President of the Swiss Confederation, Federal Councillor Alain Berset, travelled to Oxford to give a speech in one of the most distinguished and historic debating chambers in Europe, the Oxford Union. His keynote address focused on Switzerland’s role in a fractured world – a world in which conflict, democratic backsliding, human rights infringements and border-defying challenges such as climate change are increasing.

On 14 September 2023, the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK held the first edition of our Soirée Suisse at the Royal Academy of Arts.

NatalieThomas, Head of the Swiss Business Hub UK shares her experience and outlook on the flourishing trade relations between Switzerland and the UK with the readers of "London Business Matters", the magazine of the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

During the month of June, the Architecture on Stage programme curated by the Architecture Foundation in partnership with Barbican Centre welcomed five emerging Swiss practices, whose lectures were presented as a series called afterFORM. Each of the practices, 8000 agency, Bessire Winter, Schneider Türtscher, Truwant+Rodet+ and Parity Group is representative of a growing tendency in Swiss architecture to embrace topics including the reuse of existing fabric, urban policy and civil action.

During the month of June, the Architecture on Stage programme curated by the Architecture Foundation in partnership with Barbican Centre welcomed five emerging Swiss practices, whose lectures were presented as a series called afterFORM. Each of the practices, 8000 agency, Bessire Winter, Schneider Türtscher, Truwant+Rodet+ and Parity Group is representative of a growing tendency in Swiss architecture to embrace topics including the reuse of existing fabric, urban policy and civil action.

For the latest leg of our #WeAreSwitzerland tour of the UK, we spent the day in Liverpool meeting business, cultural and political stakeholders.

The UK Swiss Innovation Forum is taking place on 29 June at the main campus of the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel. The Forum's objective is to identify barriers to and opportunities for closer collaboration between UK and Swiss Life Sciences innovation ecosystems and communities.

On 28 June 2023, the Embassy of Switzerland and the Swiss Business Hub UK & Ireland hosted the second Swiss-Welsh Life Science Dialogue at Cardiff Castle to encourage further collaborations between Switzerland and Wales in the Life Science sector.

Switzerland’s Foreign Minister, Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, attended the 2023 Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in London from 21-22 June, where he called for a continuation of the reconstruction process for Ukraine based on the Lugano principles agreed at the first URC held in Switzerland in 2022.

The Embassy of Switzerland in the UK hosted a symposium and panel discussion on the topic of "Engineering Life: State of the Art and Ethical Challenges" on Tuesday 20 June 2023 in London.

Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin visited London on 14 June 2023 to meet his British counterpart, Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch, for the signing of an agreement between Switzerland and the UK on the recognition of professional qualifications.

How far are we willing to go to optimise the management of the entire Earth? That’s the question asked by the collective Fragmentin with ‘G80’, an installation commissioned by mudac, the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne.

‍The Embassy of Switzerland in the United Kingdom, in collaboration with the University of Manchester and the University of Geneva, hosted a well attended two day workshop from 1 June until 2 June 2023. The event was opended with a welcome address by Deputy Ambassador Chantal Moser.

The International Day of UN Peacekeepers is held on 29 May to pay tribute to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve in United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world, for their high level of professionalism, dedication, and courage and to honour the memory of those who have died while serving on peacekeeping missions.

On 24th May 2023, Deputy Ambassador Chantal Moser was invited to Exeter University.

The current UK-Switzerland bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) entered into force on 1 January 2021 after existing agreements were rolled over to avoid a cliff-edge situation following Brexit. On 15 May 2023 Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin met with his UK counterpart, Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, in Bern to launch negotiations on a new UK-Switzerland free trade agreement (FTA) to boost trade between Switzerland and the UK as two services superpowers. The current trade agreement provides for duty-free bilateral trade in industrial goods and for a partial liberalization of trade in processed agricultural products. It is time for a modernisation of the bilateral FTA that allows us to expand the agreement to new areas of trade, particularly in services.

The President of the Swiss Confederation, Alain Berset, attended the celebrations to mark the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in London.

Film director Yasmine Bahechar came to Leeds to present her short film Oldschool, screened as part of In Short, Europe, an annual European short film festival. We asked her a few questions. Don't miss the London edition of In Short, Europe on 12 and 13 May at Cinélumière, Institut Français UK.