In the years following the Second World War, many states saw the United States as a model for the promotion of research and development of new technologies. In light of the above, the first science attaché was hired at the initiative of the Swiss ambassador in Washington in 1958. His main tasks included reporting on technological developments and the promotion of young scientists by the US government. Staying in touch with Swiss scientists living in the US with a view to their possible return to Switzerland had already established itself as a central concern. The positive experiences in Washington led to the creation in 1969 of two other posts for science attachés in Moscow and Tokyo.

In the 1990s, owing to researchers’ increasing mobility and the European integration process, the number of science attachés grew into a network. In 1990, a science attaché was dispatched to the Swiss mission in Brussels for the first time. In 1994, career diplomats in Seoul and Bonn carried out the tasks of a science attaché on a part-time basis. Three years later, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation’s predecessor, the Swiss Science Agency (SSA), dispatched a science attaché to the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco. Soon afterwards, in 1998, the Council of States adopted a postulate instructing the Federal Council to forge ahead with the development of a network of science attachés to ensure the international competitiveness of Swiss science and innovation expertise.