EPFL to have a permanent representative in the Jura
Le Gouvernement jurasssien a rencontré une délégation de l'EPFL emmenée par sa présidente Anna Fontcuberta i Morral © 2025 EPFL
The Canton of Jura and EPFL are strengthening their collaboration. From the second half of 2025, a representative of the ETH Domain will have a permanent presence in the Jura. His mission will be to make recognised research skills available to companies, to help attract and retain young talent in the Canton of Jura and to put start-ups from the ETH Domain in touch with Jura companies in order to promote innovation.
The principle of this new collaboration between EPFL and the Canton of Jura was approved on Tuesday by the Jura Government and the President of the EPFL.
From the second half of 2025, the future EPFL employee will have a permanent presence at the Jura site of the Swiss Innovation Park in Courroux as a representative of the ETH Domain. There are several reasons for this presence. First and foremost, it will introduce companies in the Jura region to the research skills of the institutions in the ETH Domain. In addition, this collaboration should help to increase the number of students coming to the Jura to do master's or doctoral work. Finally, with the help of the cantonal economic development agency, the representative will help to stimulate exchanges between start-ups from the ETH Domain and the Jura region. In particular, his presence will strengthen collaboration between EPFL, HE-Arc and CSEM in the canton.
Broad access to research in the Jura region
The ETH Domain includes the two Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne, as well as four federal laboratories: the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Material Science and Technology Development (EMPA), the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG). These institutions are internationally recognised for the quality of their research in a wide range of fields.
In addition, collaboration has already been established in the Jura region with the Haute école de l'Arc jurassien (HE-Arc) and the Centre suisse d'électronique et de microtechnique (CSEM). The agreement with the EPFL is the perfect complement to these essential links between business and research.
The government would like to thank all the partners who have made this project possible, and in particular the Novandi Foundation and its chairman, Régis Burrus, who is making a major contribution to the Jura economy. The collaboration between the canton of Jura and the ETH Domain will take the form of a collaboration agreement, which will initially run until the end of 2027.