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International Space Science Institute (ISSI)Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Bern
Switzerland

Phone +41 31 684 48 96
Email issi@issibern.ch

Our scientific opportunities support the community through six distinct modes of operation. Links to proposal templates or on-line submission forms are provided for each individual tool.

Find explanations, forms of applications and an overview of current and past activities.

International Space Science Institute

Science is
our Focus

ISSI is a scientifically independent and neutral Space and Earth Science institute that advances science by facilitating open multi-disciplinary discourse in a stimulating environment, reaching out towards new scientific horizons.

Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, E. Bertin, G. Anselmi / https://www.esa.int

Current ISSI Events

The programme of ISSI covers a wide spectrum of disciplines including the physics of the solar system and planetary sciences to astrophysics and cosmology, and from Earth sciences to astrobiology.

When checking the ISSI Calendar for potential meeting dates, please note that ISSI is usually at full capacity with either 3 teams or working groups, or 1 workshop, plus 1 team or working group.

ISSI Calendar
Mon – Fri May 12 – May 16
International Team of A. Samsonov and U. Amerstorfer

What must we learn to make accurate space-weather predictions?

Mon – Fri May 12 – May 16
International Team of G. Barnes

Quantitative Comparisons of Solar Surface Flux Transport Models

Team Webpage

Tue – Thu May 13 – May 15

Meeting of the ISSI Science Committee

Fri May 16

Mt. of the Board of Trustees

Mon – Fri May 19 – May 23
International Team of F. Plöger and C. Rolf

Climate impacts of stratospheric water vapour

Mon – Fri May 19 – May 23
International Team of F. Fraternale and S .Ocker

Shocks, Waves, Turbulence, and Suprathermal Electrons in the Very Local Interstellar Medium

Team Webpage

Reaching out towards new scientific horizons

Our Fields of Research

Heliophysics

Astrophysics
Cosmology

Planets
Small Bodies

Earth
Science

Spotlight

💡

Latest news from ISSI and research updates from our communities.

Webpage Banner Raphael

Welcoming Dr. Raphael Marschall to ISSI: From Saturn’s Rings to the Rosengarten

Welcoming Science Program Manager Dr. Raphael Marschall

byFabio Crameri

ISSI Staff

Published: 29 April 2025

ISSI
ISSI Staff
Job posting graphic
ISSI
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Job Posting: Head of Administration and Finances

Job Posting

22 April 2025

The record-breaking July temperatures in Europe are causing the Mediterranean Sea’s surface temperature to rise. This Copernicus Marine Service model visualization shows the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomaly for July 24, 2023. The data shows an anomaly of up to +5.5°C along Italy’s, Greece’s, and North Africa’s coasts. Copernicus Marine Service provides open data and services on physical ocean parameters and valuable information on marine ecosystems, which is crucial for monitoring the marine environment’s health. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2023; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Record_Temperatures_in_the_Mediterranean_Sea_in_July.jpg
The record-breaking July temperatures in Europe are causing the Mediterranean Sea’s surface temperature to rise. This Copernicus Marine Service model visualization shows the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomaly for July 24, 2023. The data shows an anomaly of up to +5.5°C along Italy’s, Greece’s, and North Africa’s coasts. Copernicus Marine Service provides open data and services on physical ocean parameters and valuable information on marine ecosystems, which is crucial for monitoring the marine environment’s health. Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2023; Available from https://commons.wikimedia.org
read

ISSI Research Reveals Global Warming Behind Surge in Extreme Marine Heatwaves

Press release

14 April 2025

Sky above Bern on the day of Maurizio's funeral.
Sky above Bern on the day of Maurizio's funeral.
read

“I gang emol ufe„ – Remembering Maurizio with a Smile

Maurizio Falanga, February 2, 1969 – March 6, 2025

10 April 2025

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ISSI is located in Bern, Switzerland

Visit us
in Bern

Bern can be reached easily from the airports: Zurich (ZHR), Geneva (GVA), and Basel Euroairport (BSL). Bern is also connected to many European cities by fast intercity trains. Timetable information of trains within and around Switzerland can be found at www.rail.ch.

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FIND US HERE

Hallerstrasse 6
3012 Bern
Schweiz

ISSI in
Numbers 🧮

Numbers don’t say it all, but some are quite telling…

Scientists visit ISSI each year to do research together

~1000

Countries worldwide are represented in the ISSI visitor data base

63+

Journal papers published by ISSI Visitors

~350/yr

Coffees produced by the ISSI coffee machine

>255k

A Mechanism for Knowledge Generation

ISSI Base

950 Square Meters
5 Meeting Rooms
3 Floors
1 Coffee Machine
3 Data Servers
18 Staff Members

Spaces

4 Science Areas
4 Publication Avenues
7 Funding Instruments

People

7718 Visitors
63 Countries
628 Teams
106 Workshops
30 Working Groups
32 Forums

Results

1120+ Staff Publications
4900+ Visitor Papers
89 SSSI Volumes
18 Sci. Rep. Volumes
55 Spatium Issues

Latest
ISSI Publications
& Books

Venus: Evolution Through Time

Venus is a scientifically rich target for exploration.The evolution of Venus is, at present, poorly known, despite it being our closest planetary neighbor. This book reviews current knowledge of how Venus formed, evolved, and reached its current state. It is not clear how its tectonic and volcanic activity has varied through history, nor whether it once had a habitable phase with liquid water on its surface. Science questions addressed in the book span interior processes, surface geology, the atmosphere, climate, evidence for current activity, and the potential for past habitability.

Published: January 2025
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Earth’s Changing Water and Energy Cycle

This collection features research from the ISSI Workshop: Challenges in Understanding the Global Water Energy Cycle and its Changes in Response to Greenhouse Gas Emissions, held from 26-30 September 2022. Radiative processes are key to the climate’s water-energy cycle: Climate is determined by the imbalances of solar radiative heating and long-wave radiative cooling. The circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, the environment on land, and the biosphere are all driven by local radiative imbalances. Changes in climate can be caused by alterations of the radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere or at the surface, such as those induced by changing amounts of greenhouse gases or aerosols in the atmosphere or by changing land surface properties. The sensitivity of the climate response to changes in the radiative forcing is determined by many feedback processes that alter the radiation budget, especially the processes involved with clouds and water vapor.

Published: January 2025

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Surface-Bounded Exospheres and Interactions in the Inner Solar System

This collection presents results from the ISSI Workshop “Surface Bounded Exospheres and Interactions in the Solar System” which reviewed the knowledge on the surface-bounded exosphere conditions, generation, variability and loss processes, from theoretical, observational and experimental points of view. The output collects the present state of knowledge on this subject and drafts a roadmap for future investigations in view of the next missions, i.e., BepiColombo to Mercury or orbiters and landers to be operated on the Moon.

Published: December 2024

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ESA Science Programme Missions – Contributions and Exploitation

This work got its start by trying to answer the question “how do you evaluate the scientific performance of the ESA’s Science Programme missions?” For many years, the decision makers responsible for the content of the ESA Science Programme have been provided with information for each mission including, but not limited to, the number of publications published, the number of publications that are highly cited, the total number of citations used, various statistical metrics and the number of unique author names. However, this reporting only provides snapshots of these missions and was not widely distributed.

Published: December 2024

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A Spiral Amongst Thousands
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel