The Forum – ONLINE EVENT
For innovators on Swiss university campuses, the Swiss Forum for University and Student Innovation is a community meeting where inspiration is sparked, best practices are shared, and new initiates are spawn. We develop insights how to foster innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets for students, scholars and university professionals, and build a network of innovation experts at university-level institutions across Switzerland.

Our keynote speakers include:
Bill Aulet Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and Professor of the Practice of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
Alisée de Tonnac Co-founder and Co-CEO of Seedstars
Our guest:
Emile Dupont Team Leader, Knowledge and Technology Transfer Team at Innosuisse
Bill Aulet is changing the way entrepreneurship is understood, taught and practiced around the world. He is an award-winning educator and author whose current work is built off the foundation of his 25-year successful business career first at IBM and then as a three-time serial entrepreneur. During this time, he directly raised over a hundred million dollars and, more importantly, created hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder value through his companies. Since 2009, he has been responsible for leading the development of entrepreneurship education across MIT at the Trust Center. In 2021, Bill was recognized by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) as the 2021 Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year.

Alisée de Tonnac, is the co-founder and co-CEO of Seedstars, a Swiss investment holding on a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging and frontier markets through technology and entrepreneurship. Seedstars works in partnership with governments, development agencies, corporate partners, and private donors to develop emerging market entrepreneurship ecosystems, create jobs and fuel income growth. Seedstars is present in over 90 countries and invests in high-growth technology companies in impactful sectors in those markets and support them with capital, knowledge and introductions. Alisée sits on several boards of companies and foundations and is also a member of the Swiss Innovation Council. She was nominated Social Entrepreneur Forbes 30 under 30, Innovation Fellow of Wired UK, Europe’s most influential women in the startup and venture capital space and one of the 29 Powerful Women by Refinery29.

Emile Dupont received his PhD in microtechnology from EPFL before working for a couple of years for a small company in the field of semiconductors measurements in the Geneva area. He started working as an advisor for European funding and partnering opportunities for Euresearch in 2013, before leading of the SME & Innovation team there. He migrated with the team to the newly created Innosuisse in 2018 and he currently leads the Innosuisse knowledge and technology transfer team, responsible among other instruments of the support to Networking Event Series and Innovation Boosters.

Benefits for Forum participants
Develop an in-depth view on the importance of innovation mindsets for Swiss industry and society
Enrich your network with like-minded innovation professionals and experts with different perspectives
Learn about best practices from colleagues across Switzerland how to foster innovation mindsets at universities
Spark and spawn inter-institutional collaborative projects with colleagues from the community
Broaden your positive impact as part of the emerging community of movers & shakers at Swiss universities
Forum organizing committee
Prof. Dr. Philipp Bubenzer, School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR)

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Caon, School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR)

Dr. Eliav Haskal, NCCR Bio-Inspired Materials, University of Fribourg (Uni FR)