State Secretary Martina Hirayama attends informal meeting of EU ministers responsible for research and innovation
Bern, 21.07.2026 — On 21 July, Martina Hirayama, State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, travelled to Dublin to attend the informal meeting of EU ministers responsible for research and innovation. Held under the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the meeting focused on how Europe can optimally leverage research and innovation to improve European competitiveness.
The meeting centred on two policy debates. The first, ‘One Europe, One Market: Achieving a Single Market for Knowledge, Research and Innovation’, focused in particular on researcher mobility, cross-border cooperation and the framework conditions for a European knowledge market.
The second debate, ‘One Europe, One Market: Boosting our Innovation Performance’, examined how Europe can more successfully transform its scientific excellence into marketable products, services and competitive businesses. The ministers exchanged views on the effectiveness of existing innovation instruments, bringing research findings to market, and Europe’s appeal to researchers, innovators and investors.
State Secretary Hirayama emphasised the importance of open research and innovation systems based on excellence. From Switzerland’s perspective, effective framework conditions, support for early-career researchers and close cooperation between academia, industry and government are key prerequisites for innovation and competitiveness. At the same time, she stressed that the diversity of European research and innovation ecosystems is a major strength that should be further harnessed through deeper cooperation. She further stated that close cross-border cooperation is crucial, particularly in strategically important areas of research and technology, as it enables expertise and resources to be pooled and helps safeguard Europe's scientific and technological strength in the face of global competition.
Referring to the European knowledge market, State Secretary Hirayama also highlighted the importance of open and interoperable research and data infrastructures. She mentioned the fully open large language model Apertus, developed by ETH Zurich, EPFL and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), to illustrate how excellent research, high-performance infrastructures and international cooperation can drive the development of strategically important technologies.
On the sidelines of the meeting, State Secretary Hirayama held bilateral talks with several European partners, including the German Federal Minister for Research, Technology and Space, Dorothee Bär; the Austrian Federal Minister for Women, Science and Research, Eva-Maria Holzleitner; and representatives from the United Kingdom and the European Commission. These discussions focused on current developments in European research and innovation policy and on further cooperation within the European Research Area