In order to better connect and showcase plant science research and education activities in Switzerland, the Swiss Plant Science Web (SPSW) was initiated in 2009.

Professor Thomas Boller (University of Basel) and the Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center, in collaboration with the universities of Neuchâtel, Lausanne and Geneva submitted a proposal to the Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities (renamed swissuniversities in 2015) to set up a university networt in plant sciences in Switzerland. CRUS was in charge of promoting innovation and cooperation projects aiming to maintain academic quality at universities in Switzerland.

In June 2009 the SPSW project was selected among seventeen submitted proposals as one of six innovation projects. It received 4-year funding to set up a network in plant sciences in Switzerland.

After the original funding expired, the network's activities had to be reduced. The website was kept up, and still showcases current plant biology groups at universities in Switzerland. It regularly publishes open positions, news and events related to plant sciences. Furthermore, the network holds its annual conference SwissPLANT.

Since 2021 the network is organized as an academic society, as it merged with the Swiss Society of Plant Biology.

The Swiss Society of Plant Biology is a member society of the Swiss Academies of Sciences (SCNAT) and its Platform Biology. The Society emerged from the Swiss Plant Physiological Society that was founded in 1978. The Swiss Society of Plant Biology is a non-profit association in line with Article 60 ff. of the Swiss Civil Code. The Swiss Plant Science Web is the website of the society. It has around 100 members.

https://plantbiology.ch

(stepped back in 2022)

• Professor Thomas Boller (University of Basel), chair
• Professor Yves Poirier (University of Lausanne)
• Professor Ted Turlings (University of Neuchâtel)
• Professor Bruno Studer (ETH Zurich)