Fostering Entrepreneurship from Bachelor to Doctorate

Innovative and promising start-ups emerging from EPFL have been nurturing Switzerland’s economic and scientific landscape and making their mark on the international stage for many years. Until now, budding innovators have been developing and building their business ventures alongside their studies, with the support of specific initiatives. Today, EPFL is taking this a step further by offering a new training hub entirely dedicated to entrepreneurship. This project, jointly supported by the Vice-Presidency for Education and the Vice-Presidency for Innovation and Impact, aims to bring together under one roof the educational component as well as the associated programs and resources from all the school’s faculties and colleges. Regardless of their discipline, students will have the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills as part of their official curriculum, from the bachelor to the doctorate. Those interested will be able to sharpen their entrepreneurial spirit and understand how scientific and technological advances can be transformed into real industrial projects.

Fostering an entrepreneurial spirit

“Entrepreneurship isn’t always innate. It can be developed and nurtured,” observes Professor Marc Gruber, head of the Chair in Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization at the College of Technology Management (CDM). “These skills will always be useful in students’ future careers, whether or not they become entrepreneurs.”

All courses offered will carry credits. “This ensures equal access for all students, regardless of their field of study, and gives those with business projects the opportunity to develop them not only alongside their studies, but also through them,” explains Davide Bavato, head of this new training center within the CDM. At the bachelor’s level, the program includes a selection of optional courses classified under the humanities and social sciences (HSS). Since autumn 2025, the CDM’s “Technology Ventures” course has offered master’s students a full academic year to define and develop a business concept. The most successful projects can then join Blaze, EPFL’s start-up launch platform. Finally, at the doctoral level, the training center offers a sequential program dedicated to cutting-edge technologies. Various modules will cover topics such as applying business thinking to a research project, business creation and strategy, intellectual property management, and technology transfer. The overall program will be gradually expanded in line with proposals from the various faculties.

Centralized offering

The hub, a springboard for entrepreneurship, acts as a link between training, initiatives and experts in the field to create an ecosystem entirely focused on all aspects of business creation. “Through its expertise in management, logistics and project management, the CDM coordinates activities with partner faculties to offer a comprehensive and centralized vision,” explains Professor Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, dean of the CDM. “The center serves as a point of entry for external partners, such as industry professionals, alumni or investors, who wish to develop structured educational partnerships.” Davide Bavato adds: “We also support academic staff who wish to integrate an entrepreneurial mindset into their teaching or in the joint design of modules alongside existing credit-bearing courses.”

All the information is compiled in an online guide. It helps each student to build a personalized learning pathway, whether they wish to acquire basic knowledge on a subject, explore a specific area of expertise in greater depth, or structure their academic journey around a project they are already working on.