An independent ranking of 26 Swiss universities, universities of applied sciences and research institutes.
Measured against the HEInnovate framework — with one key addition: the voices of spin-off founders
and programme alumni count for 35% of every institution's score.
Silver, Gold, Platinum or Diamond — a verified quality signal for your pitch deck, website, and investor conversations. Issued only after independent expert review.
Your ranked profile is published in the NZZ media environment and actively used by Swiss investors, accelerators, and corporates as a curated deal-flow and scouting source.
Your score is calculated exclusively within your stage (Early / Growth / Scale) and sector. A Pre-Seed HealthTech is never compared to a Series B Fintech — ensuring a fair, actionable result.
An ETH cannot be fairly compared to a university of applied sciences. Each type has a different research-to-spin-off pathway, different output volumes, and different ecosystem roles. Three independent rankings with thresholds calibrated to each type's real data.
No cross-type comparison. A Diamond UAS is a Diamond UAS — not "above" or "below" a Diamond Research Institute. Each discipline has its own calibrated thresholds and minimum review requirements.
Research-driven, deep-tech spin-offs, full academic spectrum
Min. 12 reviews total · at least 4 spin-off founders
Application-oriented, SME proximity, regional anchoring
Min. 10 reviews total · at least 3 spin-off founders
Frontier research, highly selective spin-offs, patent-driven
Min. 8 reviews total · at least 3 spin-off founders
HEInnovate measures what institutions have and do. We add what HEInnovate cannot: what founders and alumni actually experienced. Two separate surveys — one for spin-off founders, one for programme alumni — are combined into one Founder Voice dimension.
FOUNDER VOICE · 35% OF SELECTION SCORE
Spin-off founders speak about the research commercialisation experience — IP terms, TTO quality, the real path from lab to company. Programme alumni speak about education quality — what changed after the Pioneer Fellowship, the Innogrant, or the START Accelerator. Both voices are anonymous, aggregated, and independently verified.
SPIN-OFF FOUNDERS · 60%
Researchers, PhD students, and postdocs who founded a company based on IP from this institution. They are identified independently via Crunchbase and the Startup-Switzerland database — preventing the survival bias that comes from institution-curated lists. Your TTO can nominate founders we may have missed.
OF TOTAL SELECTION SCORE
PROGRAMME ALUMNI · 40%
Participants of programmes owned, funded, and operated by the institution — ETH Pioneer Fellowship, EPFL Innogrant, HSG START Accelerator, BFH Capacity Accelerator, etc. Affiliated programmes (Wyss Zurich, Be-Advanced, BaselArea programmes, Microcity) are excluded to maintain clean institutional attribution.
OF TOTAL SELECTION SCORE
Founders who completed a programme and later spun out count once — as spin-off founders. The spin-off is the stronger outcome signal. Double-counting the same person would inflate scores for institutions where a small group of prominent founders appears in both surveys.
Institutional data compiled independently from public sources, anonymous founder voice from two independent surveys, and expert assessment from the Swiss ecosystem — each source feeds its own dimensions. Single-layer model, no double weighting. Data points that are identical across all 26 institutions are excluded from scoring as they cannot differentiate.
| Dimension | Weight | What is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Founder Voice | 35% | Spin-off founders (60%) + programme alumni (40%) · anonymous & independently aggregated |
| Spin-off Track Record | 22% | Number of spin-offs created, active spin-offs, patents licensed — verified against public databases |
| Entrepreneurial Capacity & Education | 20% | TTO existence and quality, entrepreneurship programmes, infrastructure, curriculum depth, student participation |
| Knowledge Exchange & Ecosystem | 13% | Industry partnerships, investor engagement, regional role — rated by independent experts from the Swiss ecosystem |
| Funding & Resources | 10% | Innovation budget, direct grants to founders, grant volume and frequency |
The EU-OECD HEInnovate framework defines what it means to be an Entrepreneurial University across five pillars. We adopt these pillars and add what HEInnovate cannot measure from desk research alone: what founders and alumni actually experienced.
A truly entrepreneurial university aligns its leadership, organisation, education, industry partnerships, and societal output. Our methodology maps five HEInnovate pillars to five scoring dimensions — then sharpens the result with direct founder feedback that no institutional self-report can replace.
Badges are awarded based on your normalised cohort score. Only the top performers in each
stage and sector receive a badge — ensuring the signal stays meaningful.
Unlike other Selection categories, institutions don't build profiles from scratch. An independent research team pre-fills the institutional data from public sources. Your TTO validates in 30 minutes. The dual founder survey runs in parallel — independently of you.
An independent research team compiles your institutional data from annual reports, Crunchbase, Innosuisse records, and public sources. You receive the draft via your TTO contact for review.
Review pre-filled answers, correct inaccuracies, complete missing items. Sensitive figures (exact budgets) stay confidential — only ranges appear publicly.
Spin-off founders are identified independently via Crunchbase and the Startup-Switzerland database. Your TTO nominates additional founders we may have missed. Programme alumni are contacted via your programme records. Both surveys run 6–8 weeks.
Your final score with per-dimension breakdown and HEInnovate pillar mapping arrives before public release. Nothing goes live without your TTO sign-off.
The assessment requires detailed information about your startup.
Here is exactly what we do — and do not — do with it.
Your institutional data is pre-filled from public sources. Your TTO validates in 30 minutes. Spin-off founders and programme alumni speak anonymously. You control the publication step.
Validate now