About us
Our mission
Effective Altruism Switzerland is an association that provides support, resources, training, and contacts for aspiring effective altruists to figure out how they can most effectively contribute to making the world a better place. To see how we achieve this in practice, see our current activities & services.
Our history
EA Switzerland was founded as an association in late 2015 as a volunteer-run group, and has since evolved into an action-oriented community supported by staff. You can download our annual reports here. We’re supported by our members, grants, and donations. If you think we are doing valuable work, consider supporting us.
You also join the association as a member by getting in contact with us.
Success stories from our ecosystem🇨🇭
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Cultivated Biosciences.
We're building a world in which animal-free dairy is the better choice for everyone. Cultivated Biosciences improves the mouthfeel of animal-free cheese, yogurt and more by developing a unique creamy fat ingredient for the food industry, using fermentation.
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Adaptiyv Bio.
Proteins are nature's nanomachines — let's unlock the power of AI to design new ones. Adaptyv Bio, the AI-First Lab For Protein Design, is building a next-gen protein foundry to allow you to synthesize and test any protein you design.
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Pivotal Research.
Pivotal is committed to understanding and reducing global catastrophic risks, especially those arising from advanced artificial intelligence and biotechnology. By supporting talented individuals who can help reduce these risks, they try to enable impactful research and policy work.
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Simon Institute for Longterm Governance.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance (SI) works to mitigate global catastrophic risks, building on Herbert Simon's vision of future-oriented policymaking. With a focus on fostering international cooperation, we center our efforts on the multilateral system.
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ETH Zürich Alt Protein Project
The ETH Zürich Alt Protein Project’s mission is to build sustainable and effective protein sources as an alternative to animal products. The focus thereby lies on raising awareness and creating a community for just protein supply, supporting startup companies and creating research opportunities in the field.
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Impactful project in progress.
Haven't found your perfect opportunity for impact? Create it. Effective Altruism Switzerland is here to support those who see the gaps and want to fill them with meaningful, high-impact projects. If you’re ready to build something transformative, reach out to us.
Our Services
Talks & Meetups
We regularly host talks, workshops, and meetups throughout Switzerland, covering various topics related to effective altruism. To stay up to date with upcoming events, subscribe to our newsletter above, our calendar, and visit our Youtube channel.
Local groups
If you organize a local EA chapter in Switzerland (in a university, city, company, etc.), or looking to kickstart one, we’re happy to provide resources, mentorship, and operational support for your activities. We currently support groups in Lausanne, Zurich, Geneva, Bern, and Basel. To inquire about support, feel free to contact us.
Cause-specific groups
We also support cause-specific groups, e.g. on AI Safety, Alternative Proteins, Biosecurity. If you organize or want to start a group focused on one of the most pressing problems of our time, we are more than happy to help! Contact us here.
Project incubation
We have the network and operational infrastructure to help aspiring EAs kickstart high-impact projects. To date, we’ve incubated the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance, Pivotal, Cultivated Bioscience. Interested? Get in touch!
Carrier advising
We offer free career advising to anyone interested in our mission and looking to switch to a high-impact career. Much of our advice is based on 80,000 Hours’ research, but we are not officially affiliated with them. Apply here or contact us directly.
Donation advising
We are happy to refer you to free expert advisory to help you better understand the impact of your donations, weigh your options, and give tips for donating from Switzerland. Please get in touch with Effektiv Spenden if you’d like to receive donation advice in German and to Mieux Donner for support in French.
Interested in participating? Have any questions about our activities? Simply fancy a chat?
Feel free to reach out to hello@effectivealtruism.ch.
Marcel Steimke
CO-DIRECTOR
Marcel studied mechanical engineering focusing on Renewable Energy Technologies at RWTH Aachen, aiming to do good in this way. Through his involvement with Effective Altruism over five years, in a local group and beyond, he updated towards doing good by supporting the EA movement as a Community Builder. He moved to Zurich in November '22 to further build and support the Effective Altruism groups in Switzerland.
Meet the Team
Meet the small, but mighty team leading key initiatives to advance the mission of Effective Altruism Switzerland. Our co-directors’ work is also supported by the invaluable contributions of volunteer group organisers across the country - find out more about them by browsing our city groups here.
Erik Jentzen
INCOMING CO-DIRECTOR
From 2025 on, Erik will join the EA Switzerland Team as Co-Director. Erik studied Medicine at the University of Lübeck, where he focused on Biosecurity and Wellbeing Research.
He is especially interested in global mental health, and how we can measure wellbeing effectively.
Join upcoming events.
Check out our calendar for all our upcoming meetups, talks and events across Switzerland! You can also subscribe to this calendar using this link.