Our clients include political parties, associations, private-sector companies, cities and municipalities, cantons, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG/SRR) and also civil society organizations. Our services cover all kinds of market and opinion research, such as surveys, data science, evaluations, analyses around referendums and campaigning, as well as campaign analyses, issue monitoring or image and reputation analysis for the optimization of communication strategies.
Urs Bieri
Co-director
Urs Bieri
Co-director
Urs is a political scientist and completed his licentiate at the University of Bern. He also holds an NDS FH in business management, an Executive MBA FH, a CAS in political communication and a CAS in communication management. Urs Bieri teaches as a lecturer at the ZHAW Winterthur and at the VMI of the University of Fribourg.
Research topics:
Referendums | Campaigning | Issue Monitoring | Image and reputation analyses | Transport policy | Reforms | Europe | Risk technologies | Healthcare
Cloé Jans
Operations Manager and Media Spokeswoman
Cloé Jans
Operations Manager and Media Spokeswoman
Cloé studied political science at the Universities of Zurich and Bern and graduated with a master's degree. She has also completed two CAS in communication management and leadership at the ZHAW Winterthur.
Research topics:
Society | Healthcare policy | Image and reputation analyses | Issue Monitoring | Young people | Reforms | Europe | Education
Lukas Golder
Co-director
Lukas Golder
Co-director
Lukas is a political and media scientist and studied at the Universities of Bern and Geneva. MAS FH in Communication Management, Dipl. Chief Digital Officer, Lecturer for Digital Campaigning at the CAS Strategic and Corporate Communication of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and for Political Campaigns and their Impact at the Executive MPA KPM University of Bern, In 2020, he completed training as Chief Digital Officer at the Swiss Institute of Business Economics.
Research topics:
Elections | Reconciliations | Campaigning | Issue Monitoring | Image and reputation analyses | Health Policy | Reforms | Europe | Formation | Mobility | Digital transformation
Jonas Ph. Kocher
Head of technology and development
Jonas Ph. Kocher
Head of technology and development
Jonas completed his licentiate in political science at the University of Bern. In 2018, he began a second degree and is now on track to earn a bachelor's degree in computer science.
Research topics:
Referendums | Healthcare policy | Issue Monitoring | Reforms | Projections | Europe
Corina Schena
Project Manager
Corina Schena
Project Manager
Corina studied political science at the Universities of Lucerne and Bern. She holds a Master's degree in "Swiss Politics and Comparative Politics" from the University of Bern. She has moderated numerous focus groups and is proficient in qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Research topics:
Reconciliations | Elections | Health Policy | Quantitative and qualitative methods | Moderation
The Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is responsible for the strategic management of gfs.berne.
Martina Vieli
Member of the Board of Directors
Martina Vieli has been a member of the Board of Directors of gfs.bern since February 2024. She is a certified board member of Rochester-Berne University, studied sociology, holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Corporate Communication and Leadership from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW and is an experienced political and communications consultant. Most recently, she worked as a lobbyist and member of the extended management board of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR. With her company Vieli Consulting GmbH, she specialises in strategic communication, political consulting and lobbying, reputation management and crisis and change communication.
Martin Frey
Member of the Board of Directors
Martin Frey is an attorney and Senior Counsel in the Zurich office of the international law firm Baker McKenzie. His areas of expertise are corporate law and M&A transactions as well as succession planning. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of gfs.bern since 2009.
Lukas Golder
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Lukas Golder has been working at gfs.bern since 1999. After his functions as project manager, senior project manager, member of the executive board, he has been chairman of the board of directors of gfs.bern since 2020. Since 2016, he has headed gfs.bern together with Urs Bieri. He holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Corporate Communication and Leadership from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and an HF as Dipl. Chief Digital Officer from the Swiss Institute of Business Economics.
@LukasGolder Urs Bieri
Member of the Board of Directors
Urs Bieri is a political and media scientist. Following his roles as project manager, senior project manager and member of the executive board, he has been co-head of gfs.bern since 2016. He has been a member of the board of directors of the gfs survey service since 2016. In 2009, Urs Bieri supplemented his social science education with an Executive MBA FH in strategic management, in 2011 with a CAS FH in communication management and in 2013 with a CAS FH in political communication. He teaches in the CAS for political communication at the ZHAW and a module for lobbying at the VMI of the University of Fribourg.
Our partners
gfs.bern maintains strategic partnerships with external parties.
Petra Huth
Economist and political scientist
Petra Huth works as a project manager in qualitative research, as a coach for moderators, and as a facilitator of complex dialogue groups for and with gfs.bern. She gained her experience on an operational and strategic level during her previous employment at gfs.bern as well as through her work as a consultant and as an expert for political education. In collaboration with gfs.bern, Petra Huth conducts large group workshops and focus groups in several languages with various objectives..
Nicole Calame
Moderator and psychologist
Nicole Calame works for gfs.berne as a moderator of complex focus groups and as a strategic partner for French-speaking Switzerland. She has been working in the field of qualitative market research, sociological and political studies since 1996 and has thus acquired a broad experience and expertise which she makes available to her clients and gfs.berne when moderating discussion groups, workshops and individual discussions - which touch on a wide range of areas - in French and German.
Laura Perret
Animation, workshops and organisational development
Laura Perret is Director of Valpeo International for Switzerland. Her activities include organisational development, talent recruitment and development, sustainable development and lifelong learning. She advises companies and organisations on complex issues with various stakeholders in the private and public sector. She has political experience at municipal, cantonal and federal level and has worked as a political secretary in the education sector. She studied computer science (PhD) and management (EMBA and Master in Public Administration). She is a PCC ICF coach, supervisor coach with a federal diploma, facilitator, corporate mediator and adult educator. She lives in French-speaking Switzerland and works in German, French and English.
When was gfs.bern founded?
The original organisation, “Gesellschaft zur Förderung der praktischen Sozialforschung” (GfS) was established as early as 1959.
The association had two objectives: strengthen the acceptance of opinion research in the public eye and give more weight to scientifically based social research in practice. Data-based decision-making principles were to be made available for politics, business and society.
The institute built up unique expertise in this area early on in its history. The pioneering VOX analyses on federal referendums and the Univox studies for universities made the institute the national bellwether of opinion and political research.
From 1992, the GfS research institute had an independent office in Bern in the form of gfs.bern with focus on political, communications and social research.
Claude Longchamp founded gfs.bern as an independent public limited company in 2004. In late 2015, he sold the company to its long-standing employees Urs Bieri and Lukas Golder. Cloé Jans became a Member of the Executive Board in 2019.
What is the relevance of the research institute?
gfs.bern is regarded as a pioneer in applied policy research in Switzerland.
Some of its insights into the opinion-forming process within the scope of direct democracy still have a decisive influence on political communication in Switzerland. The research institute has analysed around 250 referendums, giving it an internationally unmatched wealth of experience surrounding decision-making mechanisms in direct democracies. Today, gfs.bern has an annual turnover of around CHF 4 million. It continuously ranks among the most significant and most frequently cited market and opinion research institutes.
Its decades-long customer relationships, its members’ various lectureships at universities and other higher education institutions and its below-average employee turnover rate reinforce its high reputation on a daily basis. gfs.bern is a member of the Swiss Society of Market Research Specialists (Verband Schweizer Markt- und Sozialforschung) and the European Society for Opinion and Market Research (Esomar).
