BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation renews its partnership with the Swiss Polar Institute (SPI) for three subsequent years, until 2026.

Since 2016, BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation has supported the Swiss Polar Institute, which aims at promoting and financing scientific research in cold regions. In partnership with the Foundation, the SPI launched the “Polar Access Fund”, a fund dedicated to financing expeditions to the polar and cold regions of young Swiss scientists to conduct research for the benefit of polar science. Up until now, the fund has supported more than 38 research projects.

Discover some field trips financed by the “Polar Access Fund” 

Evan Miles, Himalaya

Evan is a young post-doc researcher at the WSL Federal Institute (Forest, Snow and Landscape). Thanks to the grant from the Polar Access Fund, Evan was able to experiment a new method of measuring historical snowfall and mass accumulation on high-altitude glaciers in the Himalayas mountains, filling a gap in understanding the response of glaciers to climate change.

Today, Evan coordinates the SPI’s PAMIR project.
It brings together 90 scientists to conduct research on the evolution of the cryosphere in Tajikistan.

Julie Lattaud, Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean)

Julie is a young post-doc researcher at the ETH, Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. Her grant enabled her to board the Canadian icebreaker Amundsen as part of an expedition to the Beaufort Sea. This allowed her to take samples from the seabed and the water column in order to study the evolution of the methane cycle in the context of climate change.

This fieldwork provided the basis for a larger project submitted to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), worth nearly CHF 1 million.

“The fieldwork I carried out with the funds enabled me to obtain samples and contacts (collaborating with people from the field trip) which served as the basis for my proposal. Obtaining this grant has been a huge advantage for me.” –

Julie Lattaud

BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation is proud to extend the partnership and continue to support young scientists in their field work. This research is fundamental to understanding natural mechanisms in cold regions and will enable a better response to climate change.

This partnership is also in line with the Group’s ambitions as the environmental cause is one of its main strategic pillars.

“Sustainability is a pillar of BNP Paribas’ long-term strategy. By renewing the Foundation’s support to the Swiss Polar Institute, we reaffirm our long-term commitment in engaging in projects with positive environmental impact “, comments Enna Pariset, Chairwoman of BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation’s Board, CEO and Head of Territory for BNP Paribas Group in Switzerland.

“Our long-standing partnership with BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation enables us to empower early-career scientists who undertake meaningful and impactful scientific projects in polar and high-altitude regions. Beyond bringing back valuable data and findings, they also form a close-knit community leading to new networks and learnings”, says Danièle Rod, Executive Director of the Swiss Polar Institute.

As part of its initiative to support the young Swiss artistic scene, the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation is pleased to welcome a work by the young artist from Geneva Douglas Mandry into its collection.

A graduate of the Lausanne School of Art (ECAL), Douglas Mandry is among the most promising young talents in the Swiss art scene. His multidisciplinary work combines scientific methodology and artistic creativity through mediums such as photography and sculpture. In collaboration with experts and scientists, he explores questions about time, technology, and nature, using unique materials found during his travels to challenge our perception of the world.

The BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation’s collection, boasting around 600 works, incorporates both established 20th-century art and the young Swiss art scene. In line with the Group’s values, it focuses particularly on works that address environmental issues such as climate change. Douglas Mandry’s creative approach is therefore fully aligned with the spirit and core values of the Foundation, once again demonstrating its commitment to the young Swiss artistic scene.

Discover Douglas Mandry’s creative universe and projects in his interview below.

Can you describe the sources of inspiration for your artistic approach?

My work is primarily a deep investigation on multiple levels, mainly focusing on our relationship with Nature in the current era. I approach the subject in a transcendental way, assisted by various mediums (photography, painting, sculpture…) and in collaboration with experts, scientists, and sometimes even Nature itself. Art allows me to crystallize associations of ideas in a tangible way.

Environmental concerns take up a large space in your work; what role do you think artists can play in this collective awareness?

Art has the power to affect our consciousness of the world in various ways—cognitive, sensory. Through creation, we can reconsider the reality as we know it, and propose alternatives in a collective dimension. It’s not just about conveying a message, but an experience. We are living in a pivotal, changing period, which needs to redefine our relationship to Earth and where we finally realize that it will be a collective effort. For me, one of the responsibilities of the artist is to reflect the period in which they live, each in their own way.

What is your relationship to material (wood, canvas, paper), and how do you integrate it into your approach?

Materials define our relationship to energy, from the beginning of time. Each material carries its own history, connotation, whether it is ancient, natural, or man-made. It was the stone that led to fire, which led to propulsion, etc. Our history, but also our future, is therefore interdependent on our relationship to materials. I like working with materials related to fire (glass, charcoal…) because, while they are integral to modernity as we understand it today, their usage dates back several thousand years. Materials are vectors of humanity, and it seems essential to me to include them in my work.

What project are you currently working on?

One of my projects involves reactivating a significant set of photographic archives from the early 20th century, to which I’ve been granted access for my project. I can’t talk too much about it yet, but I intend to develop questions about preservation and time, by merging photography and chemical reactions.

© Riccardo Cattaneo

The partnership between BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation and Haus Konstruktiv made the first solo exhibition on Athene Galiciadis in her home city of Zurich possible.

Since 2022, the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation is a partner of the museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich dedicated to concrete, constructivist and conceptual art. The Foundation supports every year the exhibition of a young Swiss artist within the annual program of the museum, as well as its digital promotion. In 2023, Athene Galiciadis benefited from this support for her first solo exhibition in Zurich.

“I am glad that the BNP Paribas Foundation supports Swiss artists and I am very grateful for the important contribution to my first institutional exhibition in my home city of Zurich.”

Athene Galiciadis; Artist supported by the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation

The exhibition, titled “Orientation”, reflects Galiciadis’ artistic language characterized by a distinctive repertoire of colors and forms developed over the last 20 years. Abstract geometric elements, such as circle segments, squares, and triangles, and animals including cats, bees and snakes, repetitively combine in her paintings generating ornamental patterns. Pastel and bright pinks, greens and yellows are applied to the canevas layer by layer in acrylic and oil paint and contrasted with dark blue and black. In addition to these painterly works, ceramic sculptures constitute another important part of Galiciadis’ multimedia oeuvre, as do installations, which she develops and implements with a keen sense of the spatial conditions of the respective exhibition space.

To find out more about Athene Galiciadis’ exhibition we invite you to watch the Artist Talk (in German with English subtitles) between the director of the museum Sabine Schaschl and the artist produced with the support of the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation.

The BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation was created in 2002 to mark 130 years of BNP Paribas in Switzerland. While the Group has been involved in philanthropic activities through the BNP Paribas Foundation in Paris for nearly 40 years, the Swiss Foundation has pioneered such programmes internationally as the first foundation outside of France.

The BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation is committed to supporting its partners over the long term, with the aim of promoting dialogue between the bank and society, creating links with communities in Switzerland and helping to address major social, cultural and environmental issues at a local level.

Over the past 20 years, the Foundation has supported some twenty cultural institutions, public bodies, universities and associations in more than 250 projects with a tangible impact on local communities. Here are a few key examples:

  • Guidance to help hundreds of children discover reading and the world of comics with the BD Zoom Awards, as well as the challenges of healthy and sustainable food with the Swiss Food Academy.
  • Thousands of visitors to Photo Elysée inspired by innovative projects in the digital mediation of culture.
  • A springboard for nearly 60 young artists, with projects such as the New Heads Awards, the Troupe des Jeunes Solistes en Résidence of the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the contemporary dance troupe The Field.
  • So far more than 340 intergenerational living arrangements organised through the “1h per m2” programme to combat social isolation among seniors.

  • Restoration of about fifteen major works with various partners (the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Geneva Museum of Art and History).
  • One of the largest wheelchair tennis tournaments, the Swiss Open Geneva.
  • Around thirty young scientists helped to travel to the polar region for climate change research projects thanks to the Polar Access Fund.
  • Dozens of young refugees given support in their social and professional integration with Yojoa, and people isolated from the labour market trained in today and tomorrow’s professions with the Opportunity programme.

The Foundation could not be more proud of all these initiatives, carried out with conviction and trust in its partners to improve the lives of communities in Switzerland. Discover the Foundation’s current partners and their project in these 3 videos.

Discover our cultural partners

Discover our social partners

Discover our environmental partners

The BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation was created in 2002 to promote the dialogue between the bank and local communities on cultural, social and environmental issues. To strengthen its engagement on environmental stakes and in line with one of BNP Paribas’s commitments to raise awareness about climate change and biodiversity, a new three-year partnership was launched in 2022 with Swiss Food Academy.

Who is Swiss Food Academy?

Swiss Food Academy was founded in 2017 in Geneva with the main mission to raise awareness about healthy and sustainable food. The association gathers specialists in nutrition, education, health and sustainable development to develop high value-added content for schools, public authorities, individuals and professionals.

What is the partnership about?

The Foundation supports from 2022 to 2024 the development of the “Paprika – my school committed to healthy and sustainable nutrition” programme in Zurich. This educational project aims at promoting a healthy and sustainable diet amongst 8 to 12 years old schoolchildren in the Zurich area, by empowering them through pedagogical and playful methods. Every year over the next three years, five primary schools will thus participate in thematic weeks aiming at raising the awareness of around 1’200 children about the relationship between nutrition and environmental issues.

“Swiss Food Academy is delighted to collaborate with the Swiss Foundation of BNP Paribas in the diffusion of its educational food programme for primary schools in Zurich: the Paprika programme. We are convinced that raising awareness about food in schools is the ideal way to improve the quality of relationship of children and families to food and healthy nutrition. It is therefore a great opportunity for the Swiss Food Academy to be able to count on the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation, a player that is already very committed and recognised in the implementation of societal projects, particularly on the theme of sustainable development.”

Maria Retamales, Founder and CEO

Secondary school pupils aged 15–19 selected Peggy Adamas the winner of the BD Zoom 2021 Prize.

This award seeks to highlight Switzerland’s wide array of French-language comic books while promoting an interest in reading. The winning author’s award will be presented this autumn by Ms Anne Emery-Torracinta, State Advisor for the Department of Public Education, Training and Youth and Ms Anna Franziska Becher, Delegate-General of the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation, which was a founding partner of the project.

The book by Peggy Adam tells the story of six friends who come together during the summer holidays, and for whom it is an opportunity to do stupid things and discover each other’s secrets. Their friendship will enable them to find the resilience to face challenges and help them through their childhood. An account, inspired by the life of the author, who has been able to cross generations to engage the pupils.

In this sixth annual competition, the three finalists for the BD Zoom Prize were overwhelmingly female: Peggy Adam for Les sales gosses, Marina K. for Je suis grosse and Fanny Vaucher with Eric Burnand for Le Siècle d’Emma

The winner was chosen after an entire academic year of collaboration with 36 teachers representing 49 classes and more than 700 pupils from all teaching streams. The students read the six works, studied both their content and form in detail, and had the opportunity to meet the authors many times in class. In addition to discovering the rich expressive potential of this medium, reading the entries encouraged the young people to engage in dialogue on important social issues, made accessible through the universal language of the comic.

The BD Zoom Prize took place as it has every year, with individual visits in strict compliance with health regulations. Only the awards ceremony had to be modified. The authors published videos online and then the pupils voted remotely.

The BD Zoom Prize is part of the Department of Public Education’s active policy to make culture accessible to the students of the canton. It also complements the canton’s efforts to support the book industry in order to highlight the importance of illustration, comic books and posters from Geneva, which are part of Swiss intangible cultural heritage.

The “Opportunity Zürich” programme identifies new talent and offers the recipients of welfare benefits eight intensive months of training as web developers. The project tackles personnel shortages in the ICT area and relieves pressure on welfare benefits.

Ongoing digitalisation of the workplace is changing the employment market for good.
Digital capabilities are increasingly becoming a key component for companies.
The work-integration scheme of the city of Zurich’s welfare office and the Stiftung SAG foundation have responded to these developments with a new programme for long-term unemployed adults. “Opportunity Zürich” provides eight months of training in web development for the recipients of welfare benefits. The first course started on 6 April. All 25 training places are taken – 9 women and 16 men have successfully passed an up-front two-stage assessment and will be taught by experienced web development trainers and receive support from job coaches until the end of November 2021.

Flexible, hands-on training

Practically oriented training is key: during the training course, participants work on concrete projects to learn how to programme and design websites and apps. The city’s work-integration team and its project partner, Stiftung SAG, analyse the hard and soft skills required by the market in IT on a continuous basis, in order to ensure successful entry into the workplace. “Opportunity Zürich” is also able to train participants to meet the specific requirements of individual companies. Companies interested in cooperating with “Opportunity Zürich” should contact the welfare office of the city of Zurich (www.stadt-zuerich.ch/opportunity).

Opportunity – an international project

“Opportunity Zürich” is a cooperative initiative between the city’s work integration team and Stiftung SAG, and is part of the Simplon.co network. Simplon.co is present in 18 countries and has enabled the training of over 11,000 people since 2013. In Switzerland, the réalise foundation is responsible for implementing the concept. “Opportunity Zürich” received set-up support from the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation.

Further information

Martin Hartmann

The eagerly awaited BD Zoom Award livened up the year again for nearly 50 secondary school pupils in the canton of Geneva. The aim was the same in this sixth year of the awards: to spark and develop an interest in reading while promoting the energy and diversity of Swiss comic books.

As in previous years, dozens of meetings between authors and pupils were highlights of the sixth annual awards, despite the health situation of recent months. Each visit was a chance for active discussion on themes tackled in the different comic books.

The BD Zoom Award is also an opportunity for pupils to (re)discover the unique language of comic books, and to address topical social issues such as the life of young people in deprived areas, and social anxiety.

After these meetings and a look at the books, the pupils selected their top three comics, with the winner to be chosen by a final pupil vote on 30 April 2021.

The three finalists are:

– Peggy Adam for Les salles gosses, éditions Atrabile

– Marina K for Je suis grosse, éditions Antipodes

– Fanny Vaucher and Prix Burnand for Le siècle d’Emma, éditions Antipodes

Partners for 6 years

The BD Zoom Award is the result of an innovative partnership between the Department of Public Education, Training and Youth and the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation, a founding partner, which gave its backing for two three-year periods, so a total of six years. This collaboration dovetails with the Foundation’s other work to foster accessible culture for all and education in Switzerland. With a prize of CHF 10,000, the BD Zoom Award gives broad visibility to the selected authors as well as to our region’s publishers. It shines a spotlight on a vibrant local comic book scene and supplements efforts to support reading in the Canton of Geneva. It is one of the 165 ongoing traditions that embody the intangible cultural heritage of Switzerland, continuing the tradition of illustration, comics and poster art in Geneva.

More on BD Zoom

A three-way venture in an innovative programme

In 2016, the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation, Pro Senectute Genève and the University of Geneva co-founded the programme “1h/m²: a student under my roof”. This new initiative, hosted by the University of Geneva, meets the ambitious objectives of combating the social isolation of the elderly and strengthening intergenerational ties, while helping students to find accommodation in Geneva. The programme thus offers an exchange of space (a room at the owner’s house) in exchange for time and a helping hand: computer help, shopping, DIY, cooking, gardening, conversation in a foreign language, babysitting, etc.

©Carla da Silva

A success story: a combination of rapid growth and real impact

Increasing steadily from 23 student/OAP “tandems” in 2016 to nearly 70 in 2020, the “1h/m2” programme has rapidly become an undeniable success, while close and personalised monitoring has been maintained on each tandem to guarantee quality relationships. By the end of 2020, numbers had risen to a total of 203 young people from all over the world who had been able to experience Geneva in intergenerational lodging with 140 hosts, whose average age is around 75. The programme now offers what amounts to 10% of the rooms managed by the University of Geneva – the equivalent of a small university hall of residence.

Since its launch, the programme has also received continuous media coverage as well as several accolades: the “Cantonal Prize for Sustainable Development” in 2018, the “Youth Prize” of the Youth Parliament in 2019, and in the 2019-2023 Health Promotion and Prevention Plan of the Canton of Geneva, the “1h/m2” programme is mentioned as one of the campaigns to be supported under the heading “Wellbeing and Quality of Life in Old Age” (Action 6.1).

After five years of collaboration, the values, impact and success of this initiative have led the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation to enthusiastically renew its support for the “1h/m2” programme until the end of 2024.

We hold true to our mission despite the pandemic

In spite of the current pandemic, when the issue of cohabitation between generations has become very difficult, the programme has been maintained with the approval of the Cantonal Head Physician. In fact, several hosts expressed their desire to continue living with their student despite the health risks. “Oh no, you’re not going to take my student away from me! I’ve already had to stop seeing my family!”, a lady of 86 exclaimed, adding that she has enjoyed a good life and is not afraid of dying soon, should that be her fate. Thus, around 40 senior citizens have been able to get through these months of the pandemic by relying on the presence of a young person in their home and the programme has continued to fulfil its purpose of combating social isolation.

“Special support has been set up in response to each situation. When the daughter of a 75-year-old host told her mother that there was no question of hosting a young person three days after a student had moved into her home, the programme helped the girl to find another host.”
Sabine Estier Thévenoz, Programme Manager

Once teaching went fully online, some students decided to leave Geneva, a city that was too expensive for them, and had to be replaced at short notice with hosts who did not want to be left alone.

Enhanced monitoring

The students were given specific advice about the necessary safety precautions. The possibility of moving any student who might fall ill with COVID-19 was planned for, to prevent infecting their host during the quarantine period. Since coursework was undertaken in their rooms, it was sometimes necessary to remind elderly hosts that the student’s presence in their home did not mean that they were always available. Some students also spoke of the fact that this solitary period of work and exam preparation was hard for them.

Finally, thanks to more intense monitoring than usual, around 60 tandems are living through this very singular period of the pandemic together. Because of these changes, the programme has been able to continue the fight against the social isolation of old people who do not wish to be left alone during this pandemic.

Despite the context, BNP Paribas in Switzerland is happy to renew its annual appointment with the art world, confirming its support to WoPart (Work on Paper Art fair) through an innovative virtual session.

WoPart 2020 : an innovative edition

Organized since three years in Lugano, Wopart invite this year visitors to discover a digital version of the fair as well as our two exclusive rooms, where BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation is hosted.

The first room is dedicated to masterpieces on paper from the Collection of the Foundation such as Le Corbusier, David Hockney and Joan Miró.

The second one is dedicated to an exhibition of recent works by Lisa Lurati, a young promising talent from Ticino selected by the artistic committee of the Foundation. Visitors can discover a selection of works on paper (mainly photographs) she produced during her artistic residency at La Cité des Arts in Paris, during the last months. The works are also exhibited in the Bank’s function rooms and hallways in Lugano.

Discover the artworks exhibited until December 27th:

Lisa LURATI: a talented young artist

Lisa Lurati was born in 1989 in Lugano.Through a broad palette of techniques on paper ranging from photography to drawing, she also experiments cyanotype, sculpture and video. Her work manages to occupy a very particular space. A space where pure aesthetics mingle with the deeply personal, where existential mediations are thrown into the mix with the absurd and trivial, all the while keeping up a deep sense of humility and wonder towards the outside and inside world.


Lisa has recently finished her Master at the Institut Kunst of Basel (FHNW) in addition to photography studies at the Centre d’Enseignement Professionnel de Vevey (CEPV). She will hold her second solo institutional exhibition, after the one in Photoforum Pasquart (Biel) in 2018, at the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Yverdon (CACY) in 2021.

Untitled, 2020 Colored photogram 40 x 30 cm – unique

The Foundation: a support to young swiss artists

Raising awareness of the work of young graduates through initiatives such as the Lugano Art Event serves as a genuine springboard for emerging artists; this is particularly true in Ticino, where there are no art schools to speak of.

Every year, the Lugano Art Event fosters valuable dialogue between Bank clients, the selected artist and the leaders of local cultural institutions.

Lisa Lurati, Stage of Disapearance, 2020 (work in progress)

Lisa Lurati, Stage of Disapearance, 2020 (final work)