Swiss Cohort and Biobank

The development of the national population-based Swiss Cohort & Biobank (SCB) remains a high priority for the public health community. Without such a research infrastructure, it will not be possible to address key public health challenges and the Swiss healthcare system. Driven by the public health community, the SCB has reached the stage where its scientific relevance is widely recognized. SSPH+, together with Public Health Switzerland (PHS) have engaged in a strong lobbying effort to push the agenda for influential policy makers in support of SCB. In particular, PHS initiated and led successful national parliamentary petitions for a child cohort - an inherent element of SCB. Parliamentary discussions on advancing a children's cohort are ongoing. An "ad-hoc" steering committee of SSPH+ and PHS led by Prof. Dr. Nicole Probst-Hensch published "Swiss Cohort & Biobank - The White Paper" in the SSPH+ journal Public Health Reviews. This has already received broad feedback and reactions during the open consultation period in summer 2022, including from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). SSPH+ also mandated Prof. Probst-Hensch as the representative in the leading boards of the Swiss Clinical Research initiative, led by Swiss Medical Academies, and of the Swiss Personalized Health Network to foster the many synergies among those initiatives for research infrastructures. Prof. Probst-Hensch also submitted the large road map proposal “IOP4CH” (Imaging and Omics Platform for Swiss Citizen Health) to SERI that got support from swissuniversities. If funded, the national SSPH+ network will be a prime partner of this Swiss TPH led initiative, which will in essence build a first nucleus for a national population based cohort. In 2023, further milestones will need to be reached for the joint promotion and development of the SCB.