24.02.20251st Swiss Academic Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum

How to create an environment and a culture that truly nurtures innovation? How to improve the «Transfer» phase in startup support? And how can Swiss higher education prepare for AI enabled innovators? These were some of the questions addressed at the 1st Swiss Academic Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (SAIEF) in Biel/Bienne, attended by participants from over 60 academic institutions.  

In a time where Swiss higher education institutions have launched considerable measures to foster an entrepreneurial mindset and support students and researchers with commercializing their innovative ideas, the goal of the forum was to bring together practitioners and relevant stakeholders for a structured discussion and to share insights on Innovation & Entrepreneurship. 

Hosted by the Swiss Center for Design & Health (SCDH), the event included a poster board session, interactive workshops, a keynote speech and a panel discussion.

SAIEF is a collective initiative of a group of dedicated innovation champions from 12 organizations: University of Bern, University of Zurich, University of Geneva, ETH Zurich, EPFL, ZHAW, University of Fribourg, School of Management Fribourg, University of St.Gallen, USI Startup Centre and Berner Fachhochschule.

The key takeaways from these workshops are summarized in the wrap-up paper (PDF, 897 KB).

Eva Maria Håkanson's sum up, who was co-organizor of SAIEF 2025: «We are humbled by the positive response and thank the whole community for making the forum a success. This is the beginning of an exciting journey for Swiss universities to strengthen exchange and knowledge transfer around academic innovation and entrepreneurship support!».