"The EPFL plays a key role in technological innovation in the region. It offers companies cooperation at the level of research and technology transfer, talented engineers for recruitment and highly specialised continuing professional development programmes."

What role does the EPFL play in the canton's economic development, and what can your school offer companies established in the region?

"The EPFL plays a key role in technological innovation in the entire region. It promotes the creation of technical products and enterprises offering high value added. Several studies indicate that technical research is generally exploited commercially close to the place of innovation. The EPFL is one element in this network of quality research and educational institutions in French-speaking Switzerland, which form a sort of Silicon Valley in the Lake Geneva area. EPFL has also been behind the creation of several enterprises in the form of both start-ups and spin-offs."

"As for companies established in the region, the EPFL can offer them three things: cooperation on research programmes, a pool of talented engineers and finally continuing professional development for staff in numerous high-tech fields or the management of technology. We also run custom-built courses for companies."

How does the EPFL fare in international comparisons of universities? What are its strengths?

"The EPFL is listed among the fifty best universities in the world and the top ten in Europe in the international rankings like those published by Newsweek. In terms of technology, it scores even better. It's a very international university, which is one of its main strengths. It counts more than 110 nationalities among its staff and students, and 65% of the lecturers are non-Swiss. The EPFL attracts great minds from throughout the world thanks to the significance of its research and the quality of life offered by the region – a not inconsiderable argument for top quality staff. What's more, people find it easy to integrate here, whatever their nationality."

What do you think are the region's major assets in terms of technology transfer and collaboration with industry?

"French-speaking Switzerland hosts a remarkable number of research and educational institutions that are highly regarded internationally in various fields: the EPFL (technology), ECAL (design), IMD (management), EHL (hospitality), or the University of Lausanne and Lausanne University Hospital (medicine) in Lausanne, CERN (physics) and the University of Geneva 45 minutes away. And this list does not include the numerous universities of applied sciences, which are very active in applied research and prototyping. All of these schools work together to create synergies that benefit the entire region and companies operating here. The "Alliance" initiative, for example, acts as a single portal and helps interested companies to develop research programmes together with the most suitable institutions for their field of application, which helps to secure technology transfer and the best possible cooperation."