Who we are

The SISKA is a non-pro­fit foun­da­tion re­co­gni­sed as being in the pu­blic in­ter­est.

Its aim is to en­cou­rage and show­case spe­leo­lo­gi­cal work and stu­dies re­la­ted to the kars­tic en­vi­ron­ment.

To achieve its aims, the ins­ti­tute is pur­suing a num­ber of ob­jec­tives in the fields of science, geo­com­pu­ting, he­ri­tage, edu­ca­tion and scien­ti­fic ou­treach:

• To en­cou­rage ba­sic and ap­plied scien­ti­fic re­search pro­jects lin­ked to the un­der­ground world and the kars­tic en­vi­ron­ment.
• Com­mu­ni­ca­ting and tea­ching about the spe­ci­fic fea­tures of karst and raise pu­blic awa­re­ness of the vul­ne­ra­bi­li­ty of the un­der­ground en­vi­ron­ment.
• Es­ta­blish links with the va­rious sta­ke­hol­ders and users of the karst (uni­ver­si­ty ins­ti­tutes, pu­blic au­tho­ri­ties, en­gi­neers, po­li­ti­cians, spe­leo­lo­gists, lo­cal po­pu­la­tions).
• To be the re­fe­rence bo­dy in Swit­zer­land for the ma­na­ge­ment and pro­tec­tion of the sur­face and un­der­ground karst en­vi­ron­ment, in conjunc­tion with the Swiss Spe­leo­lo­gi­cal So­cie­ty.
• Pro­pose me­thods and tools for the sus­tai­nable ma­na­ge­ment of kars­tic en­vi­ron­ments.
• To pro­mote the Swiss Spe­leo­lo­gi­cal Society's do­cu­men­ta­ry ar­chives and en­cou­rage the conti­nua­tion of this na­tio­nal ar­chi­ving work.

The SISKA em­ploys staff in the na­tu­ral sciences (geo­lo­gy, hy­dro­geo­lo­gy, geo­mor­pho­lo­gy, ar­chaeo­zoo­lo­gy, bios­pe­leo­lo­gy), the hu­ma­ni­ties (geo­gra­phy) and ad­mi­nis­tra­tion (ac­coun­ting, se­cre­ta­riat and hu­man re­sources).
Our ins­ti­tute re­lies on a net­work of spe­cia­lists as ex­ter­nal contrac­tors: fo­res­try en­gi­neer, geo­lo­gist, gra­phic de­si­gner, IT spe­cia­list. Our team is re­gu­lar­ly sup­ple­men­ted by ci­vil ser­vants and trai­nees.

The SISKA re­gu­lar­ly takes on ci­vi­lian staff on long-term as­si­gn­ments, with or wi­thout prio­ri­ty. The tasks they are as­si­gned can be ve­ry va­ried, de­pen­ding on the sea­son, the skills of each in­di­vi­dual and the needs of the Ins­ti­tute.

• Re­me­dia­tion of ca­vi­ties and sin­kholes.
• Sup­port for the edu­ca­tion sec­tor (ex­cur­sions).
• Sup­port in the va­rious areas of the ins­ti­tute.

For more in­for­ma­tion, please contact us.

The spe­ci­fi­ca­tions (85467 and 63080) for the ci­vil ser­vice po­si­tions are avai­lable on­line on the e-Zi­vi por­tal. Be­fore com­ple­ting an as­si­gn­ment agree­ment, please al­ways contact the ins­ti­tute first.

Since its foun­da­tion the SISKA has pu­bli­shed an an­nual re­port on its ac­ti­vi­ties. It contains in­for­ma­tion on the pro­jects car­ried out by the Ins­ti­tute in its va­rious areas of ac­ti­vi­ty, the an­nual ac­counts and ba­lance sheets, a list of the mem­bers of the Foun­da­tion Board, and other in­for­ma­tion on the SISKA's ac­ti­vi­ties and iden­ti­ty.

Since 2016, the an­nual re­port has been struc­tu­red around a fo­cus, high­ligh­ting a cur­rent theme that is par­ti­cu­lar­ly re­le­vant or re­pre­sen­ta­tive of the year's pro­jects.

The SISKA was foun­ded on 4 Fe­brua­ry 2000 by 7 foun­ding mem­bers. The foun­ding ca­pi­tal was CHF 120'000. Its re­gis­te­red of­fice is in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

In Au­gust 1997, the World Congress of Spe­leo­lo­gy in La Chaux-de-Fonds was a re­soun­ding suc­cess. With 1650 par­ti­ci­pants and al­most 500 scien­ti­fic pa­pers, it was the lar­gest spe­leo­lo­gi­cal event ever held in the world. A si­gni­fi­cant part of this suc­cess was due to the ex­cellent in­ter­na­tio­nal re­pu­ta­tion of Swiss spe­leo­lo­gists, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in the fields of un­der­ground to­po­gra­phy, ar­chi­ving, in­ven­to­ries and scien­ti­fic ob­ser­va­tions.

The mem­bers of the Swiss Spe­leo­lo­gi­cal So­cie­ty (SSS) ob­serve, do­cu­ment and ar­chive eve­ry­thing to do with caves in Swit­zer­land. Be­fore the crea­tion of the SISKA, this re­search was car­ried out en­ti­re­ly on a vo­lun­ta­ry ba­sis and was not sup­por­ted by any of­fi­cial struc­ture with a pro­fes­sio­nal ba­sis. As a re­sult, the vast amount of in­for­ma­tion col­lec­ted by the SSS re­mai­ned ge­ne­ral­ly unk­nown and un­der-ex­ploi­ted, by both go­vern­ment de­part­ments and aca­de­mic circles as well as pri­vate of­fices and the ge­ne­ral pu­blic. The SISKA was born to es­ta­blish a link bet­ween ca­vers and these circles.

The SSS has be­come aware of the pu­blic in­ter­est role it can and must play in all mat­ters re­la­ting to the un­der­ground en­vi­ron­ment (science, do­cu­men­ta­tion, sa­fe­ty, pro­tec­tion, edu­ca­tion, etc.). By crea­ting the Swiss Ins­ti­tute of Spe­leo­lo­gy and Kars­to­lo­gy (SISKA), the SSS has gi­ven it­self the means to achieve this ob­jec­tive by pla­cing its know­ledge and skills at the ser­vice of the au­tho­ri­ties and the pu­blic.