Science and politics sometimes seem to come together without understanding each other. The Franxini project’s mission is to improve the relationship between these two worlds. Servan Grüninger, 30, chairman of the Reatch think tank, which originated this idea, has one foot on each side: hired at the PDC, he studied biostatistics and political science in Zurich, as well as computational sciences at the ‘EPFL in Lausanne. “I would like to see scientists more often take a role of active citizen that reflects in a self-critical way their role in society”, explains the young man.
The pandemic has revealed the turbulent relations between, on the one hand, scientists who do not feel heard enough and, on the other, politicians of the opinion that experts express themselves too much. Tensions peaked at the end of February, when the National Council’s Committee on Economy and Charges attempted to restrict public interventions by the Covid-19 task force. The National Council ended up rejecting the proposal. But this episode remains emblematic of a climate of mistrust.
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