ETH Pioneer Fellowship

Launch your own ETH Spin-off with the Pioneer Fellowship Deep-Tech or Social Impact Incubation Program.

Enlarged view: Several young people presenting their startup

Important: You can apply for both programs, but can only receive one fellowship. You must apply for each program individually.


The Pioneer Fellowship Deep-Tech Incubation Program of ETH Zürich enables entrepreneurial ETH students and researchers in developing their research-based technologies into marketable products and services to launch a successful ETH Spin-off company.

Pioneer Fellows receive up to CHF 150’000 for 18 months (12 months for a team of 2 Fellows). In addition, they get coaching, entrepreneurial training, support by your host Professor, access to ETH infrastructure and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Funding is provided by external pageETH Zurich Foundation.

A maximum of 6 Deep-Tech Incubation Pioneer Fellowships can be granted per call.

The Pioneer Fellowship Social Impact Incubation Program of ETH Zürich empowers entrepreneurial ETH students and researchers in developing their research-based technologies into viable products and services with a social impact to successfully launch a scalable ETH Spin-off company. The Social Impact Pioneer Fellowship is awarded to projects that serve people living with less than 10 USD per day in low- and middle-income countries. All countries on the OECD DAC List 2024 are eligible (see DownloadOECD DAC-LIST 2024 (PDF, 640 KB)).

Pioneer Fellows receive up to CHF 150’000 for 18 months (12 months for a team of 2 Fellows). In addition, they get coaching, entrepreneurial training, support by your host Professor, access to ETH infrastructure and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

1 Social Impact Incubation Pioneer Fellowship is granted per call.

Timeline

The next application deadline is March 1, 2024 (5 pm, Swiss time).

Approximately 4 weeks after the application deadline, the candidates will be informed whether they are invited to an interview.

The interviews will take place April 16, 2024. Applicants must be available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m on the interview day.  The interview will take place in person at the ETH Zürich main building. The exact time for the approx. 30 minutes interview will be announced approximately 2-3 weeks beforehand.

Final decisions about acceptance to the Pioneer Fellowship Program will be communicated about 3 months after the application deadline.

General Information

Candidate applications for the Pioneer Fellowship are accepted if the following main criteria are satisfied:

  • 1-2 entrepreneurial qualified applicants who wish to commercialise results of research at ETH Zürich;
  • ETH Master or Doctoral students and ETH researchers
  • A company has not yet been incorporated;
  • The project is fully supported by a host professor of ETH Zurich;
  • A promising business case; 
  • for Social Impact Pioneer Fellowships only: a promising business case serving people who live with less than 10 USD per day in low- and middle-income countries. All countries on the OECD DAC List 2024 are eligible (see DownloadOECD DAC-LIST 2024 (PDF, 640 KB)).

The applications are evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • How does the application fit in with the vision, mission and objectives of the Pioneer Fellowship?
  • How significant is the Pioneer Fellowship for the realization of the project?
  • What is the innovation degree of the technology compared to the State-of-Art?
  • Does the Technology Readiness Level meet the program requirements?
  • What is the Intellectual Property situation and freedom to operate?
  • Are the planned project objectives comprehensible and realistic?
  • Does the market readiness level meet the program requirements?
  • What is the project’s impact to society?
  • Is the serviceable obtainable market large enough to sustain a future company?
  • What is the quality of the application and the entrepreneurial mindset of the candidate(s)?
  • What is the quality of the interview session (i.e. presentation and Q&A)?

 

The most promising projects are invited to an interview with the evaluation board. The interview takes place in-person at the ETH Zürich. You must reserve about 30 minutes for it.

Collaborators of the project are encouraged to also participate in the interview process.

* additional Members of the Evaluation Board for the Social Impact Pioneer Fellowship only

The  following CAS continuing education courses are an integral part of the Pioneer Fellowship:

  • CAS ETH Entrepreneurial Leadership in Technology Ventures (CAS ETH ELTV). Tuition fees apply.
  • For Social Impact Pioneer Fellows only: CAS ETH in Development and Cooperation (CAS ETH DC), free of charge.

Successful applicants will be awarded a lump sum of 150'000 CHF to cover salary costs of the applicant(s) and other expenses in support of the project. Pioneer Fellows are employed as Scientific staff of ETH Zürich (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeitende).

The Fellowship is up to 150'000 CHF, regardless of the number of applicants and level of education. 

After deducting salary expenses, Pioneer Fellows may freely dispose of the residual funds for their project expenses. All expenses must be clearly dedicated to the Pioneer Fellows’ project. 

Allowed expenses include e.g.:

  • running costs, 
  • travel/field expenses and industry fairs 
  • tuition fee for a Certificate of Advanced Studies 

Further details on allowed and not allowed expenses are listed in the guidelines.

As Pioneer Fellows are ETH employees, all intellectual property originated by them, such as patents, copyrights, models, trademarks, and so on (including new technologies, software, prototypes, etc.) is owned by ETH.

If you wish to commercialise the results from your Fellowship through your spin-off, a license agreement with ETH transfer will be negotiated, giving you rights to do so.

At the yearly flaghsip event of the Pioneer Fellowship Program, the 3 Pi competition, Pioneer Fellows compete in a pitching battle with only Pi (3.14) minutes time to present their projects.

Application instructions

Before applying, please read the Program Guidelines on this website carefully.

The applications must be submitted in the web-based ETH Zurich grant application system ‘eResearch’ .

The steps required for submission are outlined Downloadhere (PDF, 264 KB).

The application portal closes on March 1, 2024 5pm sharp. We recommend you submit your application a couple of days prior to the deadline to ensure proper processing. 

Documents and naming conventions

The following documents should be submitted as part of the Pioneer Fellowship application. Templates are provided where applicable and must be used.

All documents must be submitted as PDF files (max. 15 MB in total) unless otherwise stated. Please use the following naming conventions for your documents and do not forget to add your family name:

FamilyName_Project_Summary
FamilyName_IP_Situation
FamilyName_Applicant_CV
FamilyName_Co-applicant_CV (if applicable)
FamilyName_Publication_List
FamilyName_Support_Letter
FamilyName_Supplementary_Info

Video presentation upload

Please upload your video presentation as MP4 to the Polybox. The video should not exceed 2 minutes. Generate a link to the video and paste it into the respective field in the eResearch application tool.

Apply here for the ETH Pioneer Fellowship Deep-Tech and Social Impact Incubation Program

Note: You can apply for both programs, but can only receive one fellowship. You must apply for each program individually.

For further information and questions contact

Current Pioneer Fellows

Grace Kagho (Social Impact Pioneer Fellow)
UrbanEcho
A digital twin technology for sustainable urban planning in developing regions

 

Jessica Droujko
RiverLabs
Breaking down the barriers of traditional water management using novel hardware and intelligent software to create an interconnected ecosystem

 

Marco Francesco D'Elia
ÁPEIROS
Fluorescent, Recyclable and Self-​Healing Anticorrosion Coatings

 

Robert Axelrod (Pioneer Fellow) and Francesca Catto (co-​founder) (left to right)
IMAI (InSight)
Bringing cancer detection to new dimensions

 

Andreas Kourouklis
Conductive skin
Conductive skin device for power transfer to life-​saving implants

 

Gregor Perich (Pioneer Fellow) and Lukas Graf (co-founder)
Terensis
Connecting agriculture

 

Edoardo Pezzulli
Sustain
Low-​cost monitoring of subsurface CO2, hydrogen and heat storage

 

Fabrice Bagnoud and Iwan Haechler
solabs
Solar-powered durable antifog coating

 

Stefan Villiger (Pioneer Fellow) and Reto Togni (co-​founder) (from right to left)
Reagiro
Steering-​by-Leaning in Manual Wheelchairs

 

Carolina Paganini (Pioneer Fellow) and Jacob Lesinski (co-​founder) (from left to right)
Checktor Biosciences
Fighting drug resistance with point-​of-care tests

 

Betim Djambazi (second from left) and Pascal Auf der Maur (first from right)
RoBoa
A revolution for confined spaces rescue and inspection!

 

David Stark
QCSEL
Mid-​infrared lasers for portable gas sensing solutions

 

Paulius Viskaitis (Pioneer Fellow) and Dane Donegan (co-founder) (left to right)
smartVNS
Personalised and intelligent neurorehabilitation

 

Nevena Paunović (Pioneer Fellow) and David Klein Cerrejon (co-founder) (left to right)
Transire Bio
Painless alternative for delivery of injectable drugs

 

Natanael Lanz
Chiral
Next generation transistors

 

Fabian Schmid (Pioneer Fellow) and Murielle Schreck (co-founder) (right to left)
qCella
(re)shape heating

 

Julia Carpenter
Apheros
Ultra-​porous metal foams for efficient cooling

 

Archive of all Pioneer Fellows

Jonas Wuest and Pragash Sivananthaguru (left to right)
Tethys Robotics
Enable search, recovery and inspection missions in all waters

Host Professor: Siegwart Roland (MAVT)

Yvan Bosshard and Tiago Salzmann (left to right)
peaKFlow
Bringing the Smart to Smart Infrastructure

Host Professor: Benini Luca (ITET)

Julian Senoner (co-​founder, left), Bernhard Kratzwald (Pioneer Fellow, right)
external pageethonAI
Proactive Quality Management
Host Professor: Netland Torbjorn Hestenes (MTEC)

Bettina Thumm Müller
Citus
Ultra-​​light suction device for improved skin characterization
Host Professor: Mazza Edoardo (MAVT)

Lukas Böcker and Severin Eder (left to right)
Authentic seafood analogues
Host Professor: Mathys Alexander (HEST)

Aurel Neff and Patrick Barton (left to right)
Caterra
Laser-​​based weeding robot
Host Professor: Walter Achim (USYS)

Alexandre Anthis
AnastoSEAL
Smart patch, eradicating surgical leaks
Host Professor: Herrmann Inge Katrin (MAVT)

Lukas Ambühl
Transcality
Scalable digital transportation twins for cities
Host Professor: Axhausen Kay
(BAUG)

Simona Fehlmann, Nicole Kleger (left to right)
sallea®
Add the third dimension to cells.
Host Professor: Studart André R. (MATL)

Mauro Häusler
Spektrum
Structural Monitoring of Rock Slopes
Host Professor: Fäh Donat (ERDW)

Martin Hofmann
X14 foods
Marbled plant-​based meat analogues

Host Professor: Vermant Jan (MATL)

Philippe Bechtold (co-founder) and Michele Gregorini (left to right)
diaxxo (peakPCR)
Real-​time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)

Host Professor: Stark Wendelin (CHAB)

Mamta Chabria
Tandem Therapeutics
Targeting diseased microenvironment in fibrosis
Host Professor: Vogel Viola (HEST)

Karl-Philipp Schlichting
Nanoporous Graphene Membranes
Host Professor: Poulikakos Dimos (MAVT)

Mandy Boontanrart
Ariya Bio: Reactivating fetal hemoglobin in B-Hemoglobinopathy patients
Host Professor: Jacob Corn (BIOL)

Dominic Jud and Burak Cizmeci (left to right)
Teleoperated and Semi-Autonomous Heavy Machinery
Host Professor: Marco Hutter (MAVT)

Marc Bächinger
external pageMindMetrix
Host Professor: Nicole Wenderoth (HEST)

Tino Matter and Sebastian Loy
external pageanavo
Host Professor: Inge Herrmann (MAVT)

Hélène Iven and Sonia Meller (left to right)
external pageDigitSoil
Host Professor: Emmanuel Frossard (USYS)

Marc Reig Escalé
external pageVersics
Host Professor: Rachel Grange (PHYS)

Paul Baade
eightinks
Cost-​effective battery manufacturing
Host Professor: Vanessa Wood (MAVT)

Picture of Yurena Segui Femenias

Yurena Segui Femenias
external pageDuraMon - Durability Monitoring of infrastructures
Host Professor: Ueli Angst (BAUG)

Picture of Zuzana Sediva

Zuzana Sediva
external pageGROAM - Alternative Foaming agents
Host Professor: Erich Windhab (HEST)

Picture of Alex Tanno

Alexander Tanno
external pageHemetron - Novel Hand-Held Electrochemical Lateral Flow Assay
Host Professor: Vörös Janos (ITET)

Picture of Timothy Sandy

Timothy Sandy
Visible Referencing Systems
Host Professor: Marco Hutter (MAVT)

Picture of Marcel Schuck

Marcel Schuck
external pageNoTouchRobotics
Host Professor: Johann Kolar (ITET)

Picture of Vanesa Rocha Martin

Vanesa Natalin Rocha Martin
external pageBactoKind
Host Professor: Christophe Lacroix (HEST)

Picture of Jonathan Kiefer

Jonathan Kiefer
PhireTherapeutics
Host Professor: Dario Neri (CHAB)

Picture of Mohsen Ewaida

Mohsen Ewaida
SnowBell
Host Professor: Gustavo Alonso (INFK)

Picture of Simon Hecker

Simon Hecker
external pageAegis Rider Technology
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Picture of Christoph Schneeberger

Christoph Schneeberger
external pageAntefil Composite Tech
Host Professor: Paolo Ermanni (MAVT)

Picture of Melanie Binggeli and Cyrill Hess

Cyrill Hess & Melanie Binggeli
LemnaPro
Host Professor: Achim Walter (USYS)

Prolongate

Michael Wetter
Prolongate
Host Professor: Markus Aebi (BIOL)

Microcaps

Alessandro Ofner & Michael Hagander 
external pageMicrocaps
Host Professor: André Studart (MATL)

Fracture Specific Bone Plate

Thomas Zumbrunn
external pageCustomSurg
Host Professor: Stephen Ferguson (HEST)

FenX

Etienne Jeoffroy
external pageFenX
Host Professor: André Studart (MATL)

planted

Lukas Böni
external pageplanted
Host Professor: Erich Windhab (HEST)

Oxara

Gnanli Landrou
external pageOxara
Host Professor: Guillaume Habert (BAUG)

Claudia Hössbacher

Claudia Hössbacher
external pagePolariton Technologies
Host Professor: Juerg Leuthold (ITET)

Scewo

Pascal Buholzer & Bernhard Winter
external pageScewo
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Bartenbach

Volker Bartenbach
external pageAuxivo
Host Professor: Roger Gassert (HEST)

Altun

Ali Oezhan Altun
external pageUNISERS
Host Professor: Christofer Hierold (MAVT)

Oskari & Max

Oskari Vinko & Maximilian Schulz
external pageUniteLabs
Host Professor: Jörg Stelling (BSSE)

Enkelejda Miho

Enkelejda Miho
external pageaiNET
Host Professor: Sai Reddy (BSSE)

Andreas Schmocker & Mark Bispinghoff

Mark Bispinghoff & Andreas Schmocker
external pageLumendo
Host Professor: Hansjörg Grützmacher (CHAB)

Heckhorn & Gort

Marcel Gort & Manuel Heckhorn
external pageRapid Graft
Host Professor: Mirko Meboldt (MAVT)

Wüthrich & Schmitt

Steven Schmitt & Irene Wüthrich
SpheroBiotics
Host Professor: Sven Panke (BSSE)

Xavier Garrabou

Xavier Garrabou
Lock and Key Bioscience (Quiralex)
Host Professor: Donald Hilvert (CHAB)

Schaffner & Stefanov

Manuel Schaffner & Petar Stefanov
external pageSpectroplast
Host Professor: André Studart (MATL)

Lea Pokorny & Pascal Guillet

Lea Pokorny & Pascal Guillet
MicroPow
Host Professor: Erich Windhab (HEST)

Claudia Murar

Claudia Murar
Host Professor: Jeffrey Bode (CHAB)

Sergio Sanabria

Sergio Sanabria
REFLECTUS
Host Professor: Orcun Göksel (ITET)

Philipp Furler

Philipp Furler
external pageSynhelion
Host Professor: Aldo Steinfeld (MAVT)

Max Ahnen and Jannis Fischer

Max Ahnen and Jannis Fischer
external pagePositrigo
Host Professor: Günther Dissertori (PHYS)

Vincent Martinez

Vincent Martinez and Luca Hirt
external pagenanoleq
Host Professor: Janos Vörös (ITET)

Christina Wouters

Christina Wouters
Hallcube
Host Professor: Christopher Hierold (MAVT)

Lorenz Meier and Lukas Meier

Lorenz Meier and Lukas Meier
Host Professor: Marc Pollefeys (INFK)

Zhenzhong Su and Tonio Gsell

Zhenzhong Su and Tonio Gsell
external pageFixposition
Host Professor: Markus Rothacher (BAUG)

Patrizia Marschalkova

Patrizia Marschalkova
external pageDicronis
Host Professor: Jean-Christophe Leroux (CHAB)

Patric Eberle

Patric Eberle
Host Professor: Dimos Poulikakos (MAVT)

Marco Habegger

Marco Habegger
Immuprobe
Host Professor: Janos Vörös (ITET)

Michela Puddu

Michela Puddu
external pageHaelixa
Host Professor: Wendelin Stark (CHAB)

Benedikt Wanner

Benedikt Wanner
external pageSynple Chem
Host Professor: Jeffrey Bode (CHAB)

Sohyeion Jeong and Lubor Ladicky

Sohyeion Jeong and Lubor Ladicky
Host Professor: Markus Gross (INFK)

Thomas de Wouters

Thomas de Wouters
external pagePharmaBiome
Host Professor: Christophe Lacroix (HEST)

Tina Hovestadt

Tina Hovestadt
Host Professor: Mirko Meboldt (MAVT)

Franz-Josef Obermair

Franz-Josef Obermair
external pageTepthera
Host Professor: Manfred Kopf (BIOL)

Thomas Nescher

Thomas Nescher
external pageInspacion
Host Professor: Konrad Wegener (MAVT)

Claudia Kuster

Claudia Kuster
Perceptiko
Host Professor: Markus Gross (INFK)

Mattias Ivarsson

Mattias Ivarsson
external pageInositec
Host Professor: Jean-Christophe Leroux (CHAB)

Oliver Weingart

Oliver Weingart
Host Professor: Martin J. Loessner (HEST)

Ulf Blanke

Ulf Blanke
external pageAntavi
Host Professor: Gerhard Tröster (ITET)

Andreas Hugi

Andreas Hugi
external pageIRsweep
Host Professor: Jérôme Faist (PHYS)

Martin Ebner

Martin Ebner
external pageBattrion
Host Professor: Vanessa Wood (MAVT)

Sabrina Badir

Sabrina Badir
external pagePregnolia
Host Professor: Edoardo Mazza (MAVT)

Diego Marti

Diego Marti
external pageDiramics
Host Professor: Colombo Bolognesi (ITET)

Andreas Essig

Andreas Essig
Host Professor: Markus Aebi (BIOL)

Moritz Haag

Moritz Haag
Host Professor: Markus Reiher (CHAB)

Christopher Millan

Christopher Millan
Cellspring
Host Professor: Marcy Zenobi-Wong (BIOL)

Tom Reuter

Tom Reuter
Host Professor: Chiara Daraio (MAVT)

Matthias Krebs
external pageAerotain
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Andreas Lauber
external pageANYbotics
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Vincent Forster

Vincent Forster
external pageVersantis
Host Professor: Jean-Christophe Leroux (CHAB)

Simone Bottan

Simone Bottan
external pageHylomorph
Host Professor: Dimos Poulikakos (MAVT)

Olgac Ergeneman

Olgac Ergeneman
external pageMagnes
Host Professor: Nelson Bradley (MAVT)

Nickolay Todoroff

Nickolay Todoroff
Host Professor: Gisbert Schneider (CHAB)

Jijo Vallooran

Jijo Vallooran
Host Professor: Raffaele Mezzenga (HEST)

Xiang Li

Xiang Li
external pageZuriMed Technologies
Host Professor: Jess Snedeker (HEST)

Kevin Mader

Kevin Mader
external page4Quant
Host Professor: Marco Stampanoni (ITET)

Bryan Anastasiades

Bryan Anastasiades
external pageNoonee
Host Professor: Fumiya Iida (MAVT)

Martin K. Ostermaier

Martin K. Ostermaier
external pageInterAx Biotech
Host Professor: Gebhard Schertler (BIOL)

Matthias Dantone
Fashwell
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Hans-Anton Keserue

Hans-Anton Keserue
external pagerqmicro
Host Professor: Petra S. Dittrich (BSSE)

Marco Trudel

Marco Trudel
mtSystems
Host Professor: Bertrand Meyer (INFK)

Angela Yao

Angela Yao
external pageParquery
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Wang Hao

Wang Hao
Host Professor: Günther Detlef (CHAB)

Patrick Galliker

Patrick Galliker
external pageScrona
Host Professor: Dimos Poulikakos (MAVT)

Stefan Richter
Embotech
Host Professor: Manfred Morari (ITET)

Felix Holzner
external pageSwissLitho
Host Professor: Nicholas Spencer (MATL)

Stéphane Kühne
external pagemicroGauge
Host Professor: Christofer Hierold (MAVT)

Pratik Mukerji
external pageElectric Feel
Host Professor: Jürgen Biela (ITET)

Stephan Koch
external pageAdaptricity
Host Professor: Göran Andersson (ITET)

Choi Jong Wong
Host Professor: Hyung Gyu Park (MAVT)

Delano Landtwing
Host Professor: Stefan Wiemer (ERDW)

Marie-Christine Fluet

Marie-Christine Fluet
external pageReHaptix
Host Professor: Roger Gassert (HEST)

Florian Perrodin
external pageDistran
Host Professor: Roland Siegwart (MAVT)

Fabian Nater
Upicto
Host Professor: Luc Van Gool (ITET)

Susanne Wolfrum
Glycemicon
Host Professor: Erick M. Carreira (CHAB)

Christoph Barmet
external pageSkope Magnetic Resonance
Host Professor: Klaas P. Prüssmann (ITET)

Fabian Köhler
Host Professor: Wendelin Stark (CHAB)

René Jähne
Host Professor: Edoardo Mazza (MAVT)

Alexander Hasse
external pageMonolitix
Host Professor: Paolo Ermanni (MAVT)

Ferdinand Felder
Phocone
Host Professor: Jürg Dual (MAVT)

Jan Lukas Giesbrecht
Host Professor: Paul Smith (MATL)

Rober Adelmann
Host Professor: Mattern Friedemann (INFK)

Jörg Albuschies
Host Professor: Viola Vogel (HEST)

JavaScript has been disabled in your browser