How SWITCH unleashes competitive advantages for the Swiss universities

Everything connected to gathering fruitful ideas or projects at SWITCH is tumbled around in the ideas pool. If something then matures into a true need of the university world, it is added to the innovation process and is thoroughly checked out.

Ideas pool: everything with potential is collected here
Progress and dynamic added value within the university community is particularly essential for the future of Switzerland as a centre of knowledge. This is why SWITCH makes sure that ideas from the academic environment can be recognised, promoted and evaluated at an early stage. It is precisely for this purpose that SWITCH has set up the ideas pool: intellectual potential, creative concepts, innovative services and new spheres of action from throughout the university community are all channelled via this pool.

Innovation processes: the ultimate quality check
Good ideas alone will not suffice in order to be innovative. It is also important to recognise which ideas are the best, to implement them in the correct manner and then to repeatedly subject them to critical examination. At SWITCH, this happens in the innovation process. It is here that the contents of the ideas pool are systematically checked, such as for:

relevance of content
feasibility
synergy potential
crystallisation of a clear user community
acceptance of standards or
sustainable fundability.

For this selection process, external experts, working groups or persons representing the interests of the SWITCH community are involved as and when required.

Result: the highest possible degree of innovation in all SWITCH services
If an idea emerges from the innovation process on a positive basis overall, SWITCH will initiate the development of the corresponding new service. Initiatives and services that have already been implemented are also regularly checked in the innovation process. This ensures that all SWITCH services meet up to the highest possible innovation level at all points in time.