GEM Foundation Competitors

The USGS is a science organization that provides impartial information on the health of our ecosystems and environment, the natural hazards that threaten us, the natural resources we rely on, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the core science systems that help us provide timely, relevant, and useable information.

ETH Zurich – Where the future begins Freedom and individual responsibility, entrepreneurial spirit and open-mindedness: ETH Zurich stands on a bedrock of true Swiss values. Our university for science and technology dates back to the year 1855, when the founders of modern-day Switzerland created it as a centre of innovation and knowledge. At ETH Zurich, students discover an ideal environment for independent thinking, researchers a climate which in-spires top performance. Situated in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, ETH Zurich is pioneering effective solutions to the global challenges of today and tomorrow. Some 530 professors teach around 20,500 students – including 4,100 doctoral students – from over 120 countries. Their collective research embraces many disciplines: natural sciences and engineering scienc-es, architecture, mathematics, system-oriented natural sciences, as well as management and social sci-ences. The results and innovations produced by ETH researchers are channelled into some of Switzer-land’s most high-tech sectors: from computer science through to micro- and nanotechnology and cutting-edge medicine. Every year ETH registers around 90 patents and 200 inventions on average. Since 1996, the university has produced a total of 380 commercial spin-offs. ETH also has an excellent reputation in scientific circles: 21 Nobel laureates have studied, taught or researched here, and in international league tables ETH Zurich regularly ranks as one of the world’s top universities.

The British Geological Survey is a part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and is its principal supplier of national capability in geoscience. It advances understanding of the structure, properties and processes of the solid Earth system through interdisciplinary surveys, monitoring and research for the benefit of society. It is the UK's premier provider of objective and authoritative geoscientific data, information and knowledge for wealth creation, sustainable use of natural resources, reducing risk and living with the impacts of environmental change. We are a world-leading geoscience centre for survey and monitoring, modelling and research and data and knowledge.