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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.

In Memoriam: Maurizio Falanga
 

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 Mar 10 – Mar 14
International Team of N. Hatch

Exploiting Intracluster Light for Cosmology and Galaxy Evolution with Next Generation Facilities

Team Webpage

Mon – Fri Mar 10 – Mar 14
International Team of M. Volwerk

Magnetosheath structures as seen by spacecraft observations and numerical simulations

Mon – Fri Mar 10 – Mar 14
WORKING GROUP

Disentangling pulse profiles of (mostly) accreting neutron stars

Working Group Webpage

Mon – Wed Mar 17 – Mar 19
International Team of C. Kloss and M. Kovilakam

Perspectives on Stratospheric Aerosol Observations

Mon – Fri Mar 17 – Mar 21
International Team of N. Tosi and O. Namur

The Thermal and Petrological History of Mercury's Heterogeneous Mantle

Team Webpage

Mon – Fri Mar 17 – Mar 21
International Team of K. Masters

Development of Galaxy Zoo : JWST

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.

Maurizio Falanga

Maurizio Falanga

In Deep Mourning: The Passing of Maurizio Falanga

ISSI Staff

Published: 08 March 2025

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Nate Rudolph
read

Physics of Dust in the Inner Heliosphere

upcoming Game Changers Online Seminar
with Ingrid Mann (UiT Arctic University of Norway)
Thursday, 27th March 2025
(17h CET | 11h EST)

06 March 2025

ISSI Legacy artistically represented by various icons and symbols
read

Starting with the Science: Personal reflections on Johannes Geiss’ 30-year-long legacy at ISSI

03 March 2025

B. Chandran
read

How Waves and Turbulence Heat the Solar Corona and Accelerate the Solar Wind

recorded Game Changers Online Seminar
with Benjamin Chandran (University of New Hampshire, USA)

28 February 2025

More Spotlights this way

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.

🚀
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

~1100

Countries worldwide are represented in the ISSI visitor data base

63+

Journal papers published by ISSI Visitors

~300/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

7298 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
read

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

read

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

read

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

More Publications this way
A Spiral Amongst Thousands
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel