On 18 May 2026, Liudmila Zavolokina, Zoya Katashinskaya and Gianluca Miscione presented the findings of the “Government as a Platform” project. When many Ukrainians were forced to flee following Russia’s attack in 2022, Switzerland responded quickly but in an uncoordinated manner.
Between 2022 and 2026, the project team investigated how the Canton of Zurich could better coordinate crises, drawing inspiration from the principle of commercial digital platforms. The state, as a platform operator, provides an infrastructure that municipalities, authorities and private actors can use und further develop.
In addition to the research findings, the project produced, among other things, the «CRIZZY» prototype as a central entry point for those affected and those providing assistance, a digital identification system for refugees (eID), and AI-supported tools for analysing community data (R2G). As part of a hackathon, modular and scalable digital solutions were developed to enable a faster response to humanitarian crises.
The presentation concluded with a key takeaway: the biggest hurdles are not technical, but organisational. Coordination, clear lines of responsibility and trust between stakeholders are crucial to success.
The results will be published shortly in a final report and on GitBook.
The “Government as a Platform” project received funding in the 2nd Project Call. It builds on the project “Government as/is a platform“, which was funded under the Rapid Action Call “Dealing with emergencies as a result of the war against Ukraine”.