The event was opened with an address by Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan, Dr. Andreas Baum, who emphasized the importance of the longstanding cooperation in education, research and innovation between Japan and Switzerland. Representing the University of Zurich (UZH), Prof. Christian Schwarzenegger, Vice President Faculty Affairs and Scientific Information, highlighted the similarities between the two countries as global innovation leaders, where freedom of academia and the importance of research and education is publicly acknowledged.

After these opening remarks, Prof. Kentaro Shimizu, Professor and Deputy Director of the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, shared his perspective on doing research in Switzerland. Prof. Peter Picht, Professor for Commercial, Competition and Intellectual Property Law, Faculty of Law, presented insights on market power of digital platforms from a European perspective, while Prof. Florent Thouvenin, Professor for Information and Communications Law, Faculty of Law, gave an overview of the EU and the Swiss approaches on regulating AI.

During the panel discussions, the fundamental issues of AI and intellectual property were discussed. Prof. Michael Krauthammer, Professor and Chair of Medical Informatics, Department of Quantitative Biomedicine, and Prof. Kerstin Noëlle Vokinger, Professor of Law, Medicine and Technology, who holds double professorship at the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Medicine, also elaborated on AI in the medical field.

The Q&A session provided an opportunity to ask some interesting questions about these topics currently gaining unprecedented attention. The event concluded with a networking dinner amidst a lively exchange of views among guests from Japanese governments, academia, business, media and UZH’s researchers.

The event underscored the significance of Japan as a crucial non-European partner for UZH and emphasized the importance of ongoing collaboration and dialogue between the two communities. This event was made possible through the collaboration of UZH and the Science & Technology Office Tokyo, Embassy of Switzerland in Japan. Mr. Michael Vogelsanger, Senior Project Manager of the Science & Technology Office Tokyo, moderated the evening.

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