Institut für Politikwissenschaft

What Institut für Politikwissenschaft does

Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IPW) is a public academic institute within the Department of Social Sciences at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences (WISO) of the University of Bern, Switzerland. Founded in 1961 with Erich Gruner's first professorship and formally constituted as the Forschungszentrum für schweizerische Politik in 1965, IPW is one of the leading political science institutes in Switzerland, with five full professorships spanning Swiss Politics, Comparative Politics, European Politics, Political Sociology, and Policy Analysis/Environmental Governance, supported by more than 50 faculty members.

IPW's product and service portfolio is academic in nature. On the educational side, it delivers a Bachelor of Social Sciences (in cooperation with Sociology and Communication/Media Studies), a Master of Political Science, a Master of Swiss Politics and Comparative Politics, and — from Fall Semester 2025 — the first BA Politik- und Verwaltungswissenschaft in Switzerland, jointly with the Faculty of Law. On the research and public-service side, it maintains a suite of proprietary research databases (Political Data on the Swiss Cantons, Comparative Political Data Set, Liberalization Data Set, Deliberation, DESTA on trade agreements), runs the Année Politique Suisse chronicle of Swiss politics (compiled continuously since 1965 and relaunched with a new design in 2025), and provides an expert-contact service for media. Major recent research initiatives include co-leadership of the NCCR CLIM+ national climate research program starting in 2026.

The institute's revenue model is that of a public Swiss university department: funding flows from the University of Bern and Swiss cantonal/federal higher-education budgets, supplemented by competitive third-party research grants led by the Swiss National Science Foundation (including NCCR CLIM+) and other academic funding bodies. No commercial pricing applies to its research services, which are distributed freely. Customers span four distinct segments — students, academic researchers, media, and the general public — with no concentration on any single external payer.

Name

Institut für Politikwissenschaft

Legal name

Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IPW), Universität Bern

Website

https://ipw.unibe.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

1961

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IPW) is the political science institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland. It delivers bachelor's and master's degree programs, conducts research across five professorship areas, maintains proprietary Swiss-political databases, and publishes the long-running Année Politique Suisse chronicle for researchers, media, and the public.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bern

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Public Higher Education Funding: As an institute of the University of Bern, IPW is funded through public higher education funding from Swiss government sources. Research activities are supported by third-party funding (Swiss National Science Foundation and other research grants).

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IPW) is an academic institute at the University of Bern that delivers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in political science and social sciences. Beyond teaching, IPW conducts research on Swiss and comparative politics, climate policy, European affairs, and political sociology, and operates public-facing resources such as Année Politique Suisse, which documents Swiss political developments over more than 60 years.

Product overview

Institut für Politikwissenschaft (IPW) is an academic institute at the University of Bern, not a technology company. Its offerings consist of educational programs (Bachelor of Social Sciences, Master of Political Science, Master of Swiss Politics and Comparative Politics, and the planned BA Politik- und Verwaltungswissenschaft) and public research services. The primary public-facing service is Année Politique Suisse, a chronicle of Swiss politics since 1965 providing databases, summaries, and newspaper documentation on Swiss politics. The institute also maintains various research databases including Political Data on Swiss Cantons, Comparative Political Data Set, Liberalization Data Set, Deliberation, Design of Trade Agreements (DESTA), and the Swiss Social Sciences & Humanities Energy Research Group.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Année Politique Suisse: A chronicle of Swiss politics compiled since 1965 by a team at the Institute, providing scientifically based summaries of political events on a freely accessible internet platform.

Products and services

• Bachelor of Social Sciences in Political Science

Quantifiable outcome

• NCCR CLIM+ - National Centre for Climate Research approved 2026 under co-leadership of Karin Ingold - only second NFS led by a political scientist
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Collaboration in NCCR CLIM+ (National Centre of Competence in Research on Climate Extremes and Society), with ETH Zürich co-leading this major Swiss climate research initiative starting 2026 under the co-leadership of Karin Ingold from IPW. Nearly half of all researchers belong to social and humanities sciences.
• Swiss Political Science Association (SPSA/SVPW)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClose collaboration with the Swiss Political Science Association. Almost one-fifth of the 47 researchers in NCCR CLIM+ are members of SPSA and actively involved in political science climate research.
• Universität Bern (University of Bern)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIPW is part of the Department of Social Sciences within the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Bern. Works with other institutes including Sociology and Communication and Media Studies.
• Swiss Universities (Swissuniversities)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartner in the Swiss universities network (Swissuniversities) which promotes Swiss higher education internationally. Listed as a partner on the IPW website footer.
• Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPostdoctoral collaboration with Eawag on research projects, particularly in environmental policy and water protection studies.
• Affiliated ProfessorshipsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerContributing professors from other university departments including Mass Communication Studies (Prof. Dr. Silke Adam), Political Philosophy (Prof. Dr. Susanne Boshammer), International Relations (Prof. Dr. Manfred Elsig), International Political Economy (Prof. Dr. Vally Koubi), and Public Administration (Prof. Dr. Fritz Sager).

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• London School of Economics — Department of Government: LSE's government department is a globally leading political science hub with overlapping research in comparative politics, political economy, and public policy. As a larger, more internationally focused peer, it competes with IPW for top faculty and international research collaborations.
• Sciences Po Paris: France's premier political science institution with extensive graduate programs and research centres. While larger and more international in focus, Sciences Po overlaps with IPW on European integration, comparative politics, and climate governance research, and competes for international talent and EU research grants.

Direct peers

• Universität Zürich — Institut für Politikwissenschaft: The political science department of the University of Zürich, IPW's principal domestic peer. Offers comparable Bachelor's and Master's programs in political science, runs overlapping research on Swiss and comparative politics, and shares faculty networks through the Swiss Political Science Association (SPSA).
• ETH Zürich — Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS): ETH Zürich's interdisciplinary centre for comparative and international studies; collaborates with IPW as co-lead on NCCR CLIM+ and operates overlapping research themes in European politics, climate governance, and political economy.
• Universität Basel — Departement Gesellschaftswissenschaften: University of Basel's social sciences department houses political science research with comparable Swiss focus and competes with IPW for SNF funding and graduate students.
• Université de Lausanne — Institut d'études politiques (IEP): Lausanne's political studies institute offers comparable Bachelor's and Master's programs and conducts adjacent research on Swiss politics, public policy, and European integration, sharing faculty and doctoral students with IPW.
• Université de Genève — Département de science politique et relations internationales: University of Geneva's political science and international relations department; offers comparable graduate programs and shares the Swiss political science research community through SPSA membership.
• Universität St. Gallen — Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft: University of St. Gallen's political science unit; another major Swiss competitor offering Bachelor's and Master's in political science with an emphasis on political economy, similar in scale and research focus to IPW.

Others

• Schweizerische Politikwissenschaftliche Vereinigung (SPSA/SVPW): The Swiss Political Science Association serves as the national academic community in which IPW operates. Not a competing institute but rather the professional body through which IPW faculty collaborate, publish, and host events such as the 2014 SPSA Annual Congress.
• NCCR Democracy (Université de Lausanne / Université de Zürich): A prior Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research focused on democracy, hosted jointly by the universities of Lausanne and Zürich. Predecessor National Research Priority that overlapped thematically with IPW's democracy research; provides a model for the kind of large-scale NCCR IPW may aspire to lead.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/IPWunibern
• Facebookfacebook.com/ipwunibe
• Instagraminstagram.com/ipwunibern
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/institut-f%C3%BCr-politikwissenschaft

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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