In anticipation of Roland Luthier's partial retirement, it has been announced that the Alliance program will be headed by a new director as of January 1, 2024. Antoine Jourdan, already a member of the committee and director of SIP West EPFL, will succeed him at the head of Alliance. He aims to develop synergies both internally within the Vice-Presidency for Innovation and externally in an intercantonal context. Pascale Van Landuyt will lead the Alliance program with the innovation mentors innovation team. A former innovation mentor in Life Sciences and an expert with Innosuisse, she has extensive knowledge of the innovation ecosystem and of setting up collaborative company-academy projects. Her aim is to strengthen the services and revitalize the Alliance association.
25 years of facilitating collaborative projects
Interview with Roland Luthier, Alliance program director from 1998 to 2023
Recruited 25 years ago to head EPFL's Centre d'Appui Scientifique et Technologique (Cast), Roland Luthier and his team have transformed EPFL's industrial liaison program. Created in 1985, the program was opened up to all universities and institutes in French-speaking Switzerland in 2005, drawing on cantonal and federal funding. The renewal of subsidies for the next four years by the Association Réseau Innovation de Suisse occidentale (ARI-SO) is currently being finalized.
A few questions to Roland Luthier, on this path towards greater openness for companies and academic laboratories.
The partnership established in 1985 between EPFL and industry was unique in Switzerland. The work of visionaries?
Yes, really, because we weren't talking about innovation and even less about start-ups back then. One person, still very much on his own, organized conferences called "Rencontres EPFL-Economie", but it was rather small-scale... EPFL then decided to create an industrial liaison program, with a directorate and to invest in its infrastructure, while an association chaired by an industrialist raised the financial resources through membership fees, mainly from companies, to deliver the program's services. In just three years, the association had 120 members!
Twenty years later, the program underwent a major transformation, becoming Alliance to reflect its openness to all the universities in French-speaking Switzerland. Did the latter respond readily to the call?
Initially, there was a certain reserve, with the fear that EPFL would reap the majority of the projects that would be implemented. But the results published each year show that the UAS, with their cantonal entities, obtain just as many projects, if not more. And the other partners do well, depending on the needs expressed by companies. Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently all the rage, and one regional and national initiative after another is aimed at relieving the pressure on IDIAP, the pioneering institute in the field.
Science-based innovation has traditionally been the responsibility of the Swiss Confederation, with its Innosuisse agency. What is the role of the cantons in this context?
It's true that Innosuisse and its predecessor (CTI) have always made substantial financial resources available for projects carried out at universities in collaboration with companies. This agency also has other instruments aimed at start-ups, and is very well known in this environment. This is not necessarily the case for companies in less high-tech fields, who are more closely followed by their home cantons. Complementarity has been established with the New Regional Policy (NPR), co-financed by the Confederation. The cantons are now united within ARI-SO to support a whole range of platforms and programs, including the Alliance for Innovation with the universities.
And this support is set to last?
The results achieved in recent years, as evidenced by the number and quality of projects carried out, have convinced all our backers that such a program is indispensable. So many business leaders who have worked with our innovation mentors in innovation praise their contributions, and only regret not having known about the program sooner. So everything is set for the next four years...the new management has nothing to worry about! Happy succession!