In conversation
Enabling Collaboration, Igniting Ideas NOMIS Senior Fellowships
Featuring
Elizabeth Broadbent of the University of Auckland has been named a 2026 NOMIS Senior Fellow at the Collegium Helveticum—one of social robotics’ most influential researchers. Elizabeth was among the first to unite robotics engineering with psychology in shaping how the field understands artificial agents in healthcare.
She was nominated by Beate Ditzen from the University of Zurich, alongside co-nominator Emily Cross from ETH Zurich. Through the newly launched NOMIS Senior Fellowship program, the Collegium and the NOMIS Foundation invite researchers from ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, or the Zurich University of the Arts to bring international leading scholars to Zurich for five or ten months of uninterrupted, residential collaboration. We spoke with Elizabeth, Emily, and Beate about how the nomination came about, their shared time ahead, and the collaborative opportunities that might arise from that.
What led you both to nominate Elizabeth Broadbent in particular?
Emily Cross (EC): Elizabeth has been one of the most influential thinkers in social robotics for years—particularly in how socially assistive robots can support people in healthcare contexts. She was among the first scholars to clearly unite robotics engineering with psychology, and health psychology in particular. And this combination has shaped how the field as a whole understands what artificial agents can and cannot do for people’s health.
Beate Ditzen (BD): The combination of diverse areas of expertise truly distinguishes Elizabeth. This is particularly rare and valuable because she brings together perspectives from behavioral medicine and robotics. Her work goes beyond examining human-robot interaction per se. Instead, she asks which forms of interaction with robots have the potential to promote health, and during which phases or under which conditions of health impairment such interactions may be most effective and provide meaningful support or relief.
And what made this fellowship the right moment for you, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth Broadbent (EB) The fit was immediate. My work examines how we might reduce stress and loneliness, including whether AI agents and social robots can genuinely provide social support, and how. That question requires computer science, psychology, and ethics in the same room—not confined to separate departments. A fellowship built specifically around bringing people together across disciplines, in one place, for an extended period, is precisely the setting that question calls for.
Emily: Elizabeth and her work are familiar to anyone working in the field of social robotics. So when the NOMIS Senior Fellowship became available, it felt less like discovering a new opportunity and more like finally having occasion to act on an idea I had held in mind for years. And it was never only the two of us: Professor Beate Ditzen at the University of Zurich joined as co-nominator, so from the outset this was a three-way collaboration spanning two universities and the Collegium.
Beate: In a similar way, my connection to Elizabeth goes back further than the nomination itself. We’ve been in contact for several years through our shared interest in the neuroimmunological effects of social interactions and, more recently, human–robot interactions. Within Elizabeth’s first few days after having started her NOMIS Senior Fellowship, we began discussing a potential joint project combining data collection in New Zealand with analyses in my lab at the University of Zurich. And it quickly became clear that this could provide a promising basis for future collaboration.
Elizabeth: From my side, the timing was remarkable. I had already been planning a sabbatical visit to colleagues in Europe. So when this fellowship arose, it did not feel like a departure from that plan but rather its first chapter—brought forward and given real structure.
“My research requires computer science, health psychology and ethics in the same room, not confined to separate departments.”
What does a fellowship of this kind make possible that a standard research visit does not?
Emily: Time, above all. We know from research, and from firsthand experience, that exchanging ideas in person is far more creative and effective than another video call—yet time zones and institutional geography usually keep promising collaborators a world apart. This fellowship removes that barrier for the better part of a year. Elizabeth arrived in Zurich this autumn, and I will in turn join her at the University of Auckland during my sabbatical in early 2027. So the collaboration does not end with the fellowship—it simply changes location. That much time together is what allows a genuine joint research proposal to take shape, rather than a conversation that fades after a conference. The NOMIS Senior Fellowship provides exactly the context needed for collaborations like this to ignite and flourish—Zurich is fortunate to have this scheme.
Beate: Having just started as a professor in Zurich, I saw this as a unique opportunity to bring an internationally acclaimed researcher to spend time here and engage in deeper conversation around shared research interests. It has also brought benefits I had not quite anticipated: Elizabeth’s stay has put me in closer contact with my ETH colleague Emily, and has deepened my exchange with Urte Scholz in the Department of Psychology. The four of us will convene a workshop together, and we are now planning to design an experimental study.
“The NOMIS Senior Fellowship provides exactly the context needed for collaborations like this to ignite and flourish.“
What is it about Zurich in particular that makes this worthwhile?
Beate: The research infrastructure, the vibrant research environment, and the interdisciplinary exchange are major strengths of Zurich, my new workplace. Here, technology, life sciences, and humanities come together and this will help start an international collaboration and research project together with Elizabeth.
Emily: I would put it even more strongly: Zurich brings together an extraordinary amount of world-class work in technology, medicine, the arts, humanities and science, all within one small yet vibrant city. The Collegium is the engine that makes that concentration genuinely useful—it gives Zurich’s own researchers, not only visiting fellows, both the opportunity and the incentive to step outside their usual circles, take a risk, and build something new with colleagues from an entirely different discipline.
What would you say to a colleague here in Zurich who is considering whether to nominate someone?
Emily: Do it. This scheme exists precisely so that any of us can bring in the person we have long wanted to work with properly, rather than exchanging a few words at a conference. The Collegium provides the setting; the task is simply to make the case for who belongs here. Zurich is fortunate to have this scheme, and it is the researchers who use it who stand to benefit most.
Elizabeth: And from the other side—if you are approached about being nominated, take it seriously. A fellowship of this kind does not merely fund a visit; it gives you and your Zurich colleagues the time to build a collaboration that lasts well beyond your stay at a world-class institution.
Elizabeth's fellowship project