Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research

The Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER, German: Eidgenössisches Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung; French: Département fédéral de l'économie, de la formation et de la recherche; Italian: Dipartimento federale dell'economia, della formazione e della ricerca) is one of the seven departments of the federal government of Switzerland, headed by a Member of the Swiss Federal Council.

The department was renamed from Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA) effective on 1 January 2013 based on decisions taken by the Federal Council in 2011.

Organisation

The department is composed of the following federal offices:

General Secretariat, including the Federal Consumer Affairs Bureau FCAB (responsible for consumer affairs) and the Swiss civilian service agency (ZIVI).
State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO): Responsible for national and international economic policy, trade negotiations and labour policy.
State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG): Responsible for agricultural policy, for direct payments to Swiss farmers, and for Agroscope, center of excellence for agricultural research.
Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES): Manages emergency supplies of essential goods and services.
Federal Office for Housing (FOH): Responsible for housing policy.

The following independent agencies are administratively attached to the EAER:

Price Supervisor: Price ombudsman and responsible for the supervision of regulated prices.
Competition Commission, also known as COMCO, the Swiss competition regulator.
Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET): Provides training for vocational education professionals.
ETH Board, which itself manages the ETH Domain, a group of technical universities and research institutes. These include the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, the Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensdorf, the Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research and the Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology in Dübendorf.

Former offices

The Federal Veterinary office (FVO) was merged in 2014 into the Federal Office for Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs, subordinated to the Federal Department of Home Affairs. The FVO was responsible for animal welfare and health, the safety of food of animal origin and the implementation of the CITES convention.