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).

Our Ins­ti­tute draws on a net­work of spe­cia­lists acting as exter­nal consul­tants : bio­lo­gists, fores­try engi­neers, geo­lo­gists, web deve­lo­pers, gra­phic desi­gners and IT spe­cia­lists. Our team is regu­lar­ly sup­ple­men­ted by people doing com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice and inter­ns.

For more infor­ma­tions, please contact us.

Les cahiers des charges rela­tifs aux postes de ser­vice civil dis­po­nibles sont mis en ligne sur le por­tail e‑Zivi. Avant de rem­plir une conven­tion d’affectation, veuillez tou­jours prendre d’abord contact avec l’Institut.

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.

The mem­bers of the Swiss Spe­leo­lo­gi­cal Socie­ty (SSS) observe, docu­ment and archive eve­ry­thing rela­ted to 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. 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.

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.