Who we are

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

Its goal is to en­cou­rage and pro­mote spe­leo­lo­gi­cal work and know­ledge of the kars­tic en­vi­ron­ment with a view to sus­tai­nable ma­na­ge­ment.

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

• En­cou­rage ba­sic and ap­plied scien­ti­fic re­search pro­jects lin­ked to the un­der­ground world and the kars­tic en­vi­ron­ment.
• Com­mu­ni­cate and teach 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 re­si­dents).
• Be the swiss re­fe­rence bo­dy 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.
• Pro­mote the Swiss Spe­leo­lo­gi­cal Society's do­cu­men­ta­ry ar­chives and en­cou­rage the conti­nua­tion of this na­tio­nal ar­chi­ving work.

SISKA em­ploys staff in the na­tu­ral sciences (geo­lo­gy, hy­dro­geo­lo­gy, geo­mor­pho­lo­gy, ar­chaeo­zoo­lo­gy, bios­pe­leo­lo­gy), the hu­ma­ni­ties (geo­gra­phy) and ad­mi­nis­tra­tion (ac­coun­ting, se­cre­ta­riat and hu­man re­sources).
Notre Ins­ti­tut s’appuie sur un ré­seau de spé­cia­listes en tant que man­da­taires ex­ternes : in­gé­nieur fo­res­tier, géo­logue, gra­phiste, in­for­ma­ti­cienne. Notre équipe est ré­gu­liè­re­ment com­plé­tée par des ci­vi­listes et des sta­giaires.

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

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

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.

Les membres de la So­cié­té suisse de spé­léo­lo­gie (SSS) ob­servent, do­cu­mentent et ar­chivent tout ce qui concerne les grottes de notre pays. Avant la créa­tion de l’ISSKA, ces re­cherches étaient as­su­mées de ma­nière en­tiè­re­ment bé­né­vole et ne pou­vaient s’appuyer sur au­cune struc­ture of­fi­cielle à base pro­fes­sion­nelle. Il en ré­sul­tait que les mul­tiples in­for­ma­tions col­lec­tées par la SSS res­taient gé­né­ra­le­ment mé­con­nues et sous-ex­ploi­tées, tant par les ad­mi­nis­tra­tions, les mi­lieux aca­dé­miques, les bu­reaux pri­vés que par le grand pu­blic. L’ISSKA est né pour éta­blir un lien entre les spé­léo­logues et ces mi­lieux.

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.

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.