Global leaders in Science & Technology from governments, funding agencies, universities and private companies discussed in plenary sessions and workshops about current topics in science & technology, and how science & technology can be used for the well-being of our society.

In the field of medicine, Nobel Laureate Prof. Shinya Yamanaka mentioned that a new definition of success is required. Personalized medicine and new treatments may be effective, however getting so expensive that either it can be only afforded by a few rich people or then governments will go bankrupt. Therefore, a new treatment should only be called a success if it is affordable by the society.

Artificial Intelligence and Big Data were also major topics that were discussed. In the field of Artificial Intelligence, a lot of basic research is still needed. Today, AI finds correlations, but not causality, which will be important to trust results. In the field of Big Data, all participants in the workshop agreed that sharing of data will bring benefits to all. However, reality will be opposite once there is economic value to the data. Besides data quality and consistency issues, a major obstacle is that sharing data will change the relative competitive advantage between the competitors.

From the Swiss delegation, there was one speaker: Prof. Dr. Manuel Peitsch, Chief Scientific Officer of Philip Morris International R&D was a speaker in the Environment and Health session.

Ambassador Jean-François Paroz kindly hosted a welcome lunch for the participants of the STS forum at his residence on October 10 to discuss about the impact for Switzerland.