“ZHAW entrepreneurship” is the place where entrepreneurial thinkers and actors come together.

Is specialised knowledge enough to overcome the social, ecological and economic challenges of today and tomorrow? Companies and organisations are increasingly eager to find gifted students and partners with an entrepreneurial mindset and skills to develop and implement innovative solutions. As an entrepreneurial university, the ZHAW strives to be a hub where these individuals can expand their horizons, experiment and thrive. The university therefore launched the strategic initiative “ZHAW entrepreneurship” at the end of 2021. The focus in 2022 was on building a diverse entrepreneurship community of students, employees and economic and social players. 

Accelerating the entrepreneurial university 

In addition to establishing an entrepreneurial community called “visioneur” – a play on the words “vision” and “entrepreneur” – several pilot projects and events were carried out.  For example, the “ZHAW entrepreneurship” booth at the Start-up Nights in Winterthur attracted students, representatives of start-ups and other interested parties. The newly created meet-the-nerd event series is intended to open doors across Schools and encourage interaction. Hanna Brahme and Anita Buchli, who head up the initiative together, want to create the possibility for everyone interested to drop in without obligation and get inspired. At the end of the year, interested parties were invited to accelerate the transformation of the ZHAW into a leading entrepreneurial university as part of an open innovation process. Motivated teams will work as intrapreneurs on selected ideas and solutions over the course of a year.