SPHN introduces new governance structure and funding scheme

With the formal signing of the mandate 2025–2028 by the Confederation, the governance structure of the Swiss Personalized Health Network as well as its funding instruments is evolving.

The highest governing body of SPHN is now called the Steering Board, replacing the previous National Steering Board. Its size has been consolidated to emphasize its increased strategic focus. It now consists of eight members representing the key stakeholder groups of health research, plus the federal administration as observers. The Steering Board is responsible for SPHN’s overall strategy, allocation of resources, and for maintaining contact with the political authorities. 

To ensure that the needs of all stakeholders and partners are considered in SPHN, a new Sounding Board will be created. It will bring together the full breadth of relevant institutions and organizations to reflect the strategy, guidelines, and implementation plans of SPHN. The Sounding Board will also propose and endorse projects and working groups to facilitate the embedding of SPHN in the national health research landscape, ensuring seamless interfaces with all relevant partners. 

In line with the new mandate for 2025-2028, the funding instruments of SPHN have also been adapted. SPHN’s core financing from the ERI Dispatch 2025-2028 covers the Data Coordination Center (DCC) and the essential core services and infrastructures of the federated network components at hospitals, BioMedIT nodes, and national repositories. All additional activities, such as hosting of projects, upscaling and further development of the network will need to be financed with additional income. As during the past years, matching funds are generally required when institutions receive financial contributions from SPHN.  

SPHN will continue to support the National Data Streams (NDS) research consortia with in-kind services from the DCC, university hospitals, and BioMedIT, to maintain the NDS primary data assets as the basis for personalized health research. This support is conditional on making the assembled data available to the research community, in line with Open Research Data practices. Other national projects may also receive similar in-kind support by SPHN, if they ensure that their data can be accessed and reused under the same principles. 

This adapted setup for the next four years of SPHN aims to lay optimal foundations for a long-term solution for coordination of FAIR clinical and health-related data (including -omics data) from 2029 onward. The strategy will be developed with SERI’s mandated expert group, in close alignment with the DigiSanté program of the Federal Office of Public Health and the Federal Statistical Office. 

Further reading: 

• SPHN Steering Board 
• SPHN Rules of Procedure 2025-2028 
• SPHN Funding Principles 2025-2028 
• SPHN Funding Regulations 2025-2028 
• SERI Mandate (“Zusatzprotokoll”) 2025-2028