New CEO for the Swiss Plant Breeding Center
06 November 2025, Switzerland: The Swiss Plant Breeding Center (SPBC) has a new CEO, Hans Dätwyler, who took up his post on 15 October 2025. The SPBC was co-founded by FiBL at the end of 2024 and has its office at FiBL in Frick. The main tasks of the SPBC are to implement new findings and techniques in practical plant breeding and to connect stakeholders.
As the Supporting Association of the SPBC announced, the new CEO Hans Dätwyler has returned to his Swiss roots after three decades abroad and two decades of successful work in the academic and private breeding sectors. He brings extensive knowledge and practical experience in plant and animal breeding, with core competencies in quantitative genetics, predictive statistics, genomics, and digital phenotyping.
Strengthening Swiss plant breeding
At the end of 2024, FiBL, Agroscope, ETH Zurich, Sativa Rheinau AG, Delley Samen und Pflanzen AG and the Swiss plant breeders founded the Swiss Plant Breeding Center (SPBC). It has the important task of strengthening Swiss plant breeding and increasing breeding efficiency. The goal is to develop robust varieties for sustainable production and a local food system. The new center connects stakeholders in breeding and research and implements new research findings into practical breeding programs.
The SPBC offers private and public breeders technical support, know-how, and professional expertise and plays an active role in the planning and implementation of innovations. It tailors its services to customer needs, is open to all plant species, cultivation systems, and methods, covers a broad range of expertise through network partnerships, and is active in acquiring client and third-party funding.
Monika Messmer, co-leader of the group Plant Breeding at FiBL and President of the SPBC Supporting Association, sees great potential in the new competence and innovation network for sustainable, resource-efficient agriculture that can adapt to Switzerland’s rapidly changing climatic conditions. “We are convinced that in Hans Dätwyler we have found the perfect candidate for the operational management of the SPBC and look forward to a close collaboration.”
Board of Directors, Supporting Association of the Swiss Plant Breeding Center
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