Info Desk Entrepreneur Fellowships Digital Innovation & Sustainable Society

Stage I: Right after you got the approval

• Browse through this InfoDesk website to learn more about the onboarding process and resources available.
• Go through the General Terms (PDF, 75 KB) 

Schedule the 30 min onboarding  video call with UZH Innovation Office

Stage II: Before you start the Fellowship

• Select your coach. Learn about our entrepreneurship coaches and decide on your first and second priority. You will be matched with a coach depending on your choice and coach availability.
• Fill in the Onboarding Questionnaire for coaching it serves as a preparation for the entrepreneurship  coaching and ensures that you can make the most of the coaching sessions from the first time  you meet with your coach (You will receive a reminder via E-Mail). 
• Complete, sign and submit the  Release of funds document. (You will receive a reminder via E-Mail.)
• Provide a website profile text and a photo (landscape format) for your fellow web profile. (You will receive a reminder via E-Mail.)
• Upload all documents and info directly on the grant platform.
• Plan your participation in an entrepreneurship training such as the Innosiosse Business Concept Course. Let us know if you have any questions regarding which training to join.

Stage III: Project kick-off, hand in project plan

• Set up a kick-off meeting with your entrepreneurship coach within the first two weeks of your Fellowship. The coach will use their experience to support you in reflecting on your project and analyze gaps to work on during your project to achieve your project goal. Use the first 1-2 sessions with the coach to prepare your project plan.
• Hand in your updated project plan (PDF, 107 KB) and budget plan (XLSX, 40 KB) on the grant platform one month after the start of your Fellowship. Your budget should contain comments on any changes since your application. If you have received any additional funding that will be used for the project, please include this.
• Set a first meeting with your Techtrans manager at Unitectra.

Stage IV: Interim report and review meeting

• Submit the interim report (DOCX, 71 KB) and an updated timeline plan and financial report  (XLSX, 40 KB) 5 months after you started your fellowship. You will receive an invitation via E-Mail containing a link to upload your interim report on the grant platform.
• Prepare a 10 min project update. Share how you have progressed on the work to close the gaps towards the goal of your project. Guidelines will be provided by the Innovation Office.
• The Innovation Office will plan the review meeting with you six months into your Fellowship. At the meeting, representatives from all units of the support program will be present

Stage V: At the end of your Entrepreneur Fellowship

• Close Account: Make sure that all your invoices are settled and that the account is not overdrawn. If we do not hear from you, we will close your account 30 days after your fellowship has ended.
• Final report: No longer than 6 weeks after your funding has ended we ask you to complete the final report (DOCX, 87 KB). You will receive an invitation via E-Mail containing a link to upload your final report on the grants platform.
• Leaving UZH: If the ending of your Fellowship means that you are also leaving the university, please get in contact with your HR responsible for the correct procedure in your institute. We would like to stay in touch with you, make sure to leave us an email address that will be valid for the next years.

The Digital Society Initiative(DSI) is a scientific institution supported by all faculties of the UZH, which promotes independent scientific reflection and innovation on questions of digital transformation.

As a Digital Entrepreneur Fellow you can profit from the DSI network and use the DSI space depending on availability. You need to register as member to book meeting rooms and become a member of one of the communities.

Please always mention your status as an Entrepreneur Fellow when you are in exchange with the DSI.

Every fellow is supported by a dedicated entrepreneurship coach throughout the fellowship period. Before starting the coaching sessions the fellow will fill a coaching questionaire. This ensures that the onboarding is quick that the coach early on knows on what aspects of the project to focus. The UZH Innovation Office currently works with 8 entrepreneurship coaches for the domains of digital innovation and sustainable society.

Unitectra is the Technology Transfer Office of the University of Zurich. They will support you on commercialization issues, such as the protection of intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyright) and the creation of spin-off companies. Unitectra is also your negotiation partner for the license to use UZH patents. We advice you to meet with Unitectra at the beginning of the fellowship to lay out a plan for exchange throughout the funding period.

Contact Wolfgang Henggeler to schedule a first meeting!

As part of the UZH Entrepreneur Fellowships and the UZH Innovation Grants programs, the UZH Innovation Office has launched a new event series "Innovator Mornings". 

The event series aims to foster exchange among the UZH Innovation Community. It gives the grantees and fellows the opportunity to get feedback on their projects from a diverse audience, network and make use of synergies and experiences. The event focuses on internal exchange within UZH innovation community (Entrepreneur Fellows, Grant recipients, Coaches and researchers interested currently preparing to apply for these programs). 

The event program features finishing grantees sharing key takeaways, introduction of new entrepreneur fellows, an inspirational interview with a startup founder, and lots of networking opportunities that allows to connect with peers and coaches. 

If you wish to discuss any questions or obtain feedback on issues regarding financing and accounting issues (financial planning, valuation, projections, budgeting, etc.), feel free to contact David Oesch to schedule a meeting. David Oesch is Professor for Financial Accounting, Department of Business Administration at the University of Zurich.

Please follow these instructions for how to refer to the Entrepreneur Fellowship in your communication on slides, website, social media, publications etc.

Slides and Website

Use the Entrepreneur Fellowship Logo (PNG, 104 KB)

Posts on LinkedIn

Tag the UZH Innovation Hub LinkedIn profil

Publications

Digital Innovation

Sustainable Society 

(You find the reference number on your letter of approval.) 

You may want to consider engaging a bachelor or master student to work on a specific aspect of your project. The Innovation Office has a collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Luzern that makes it possible to find students to work on business problems such as evaluation of alternative markets, marketing strategies, pricing strategies etc. Students at the Department of Informatics at UZH all do a hands-on student project during their studies and may be interested in working with you.

In any case you should make sure to have an agreement with the student saying that the intellectual property developed during this work belongs to the University.

Reach out to the Innovation Office or directly to Unitectra (for agreement templates) if you have any questions to collaboration with students!

Regulatory

Regulatory consulting – Digital Trial Intervention Platform | ETH Zurich

UZH Innovation Hub News

MS channel for news, event announcements and offering around Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Zurich.

As soon as you have incporporated a company based on your Entrepreneur Fellowship you can apply for the UZH Startup Label.

Go to application form.

The UZH Entrepreneur Fellowship recipients are required to submit an interim report 6 months after the project start. We ask you to submit a final report within 6 weeks after successful completion of the fellowship.

Why reports are so important

• Opportunity for you to reflect on the progress of your project
• A basis for the review meeting and an opportunity for you to get holistic feedback and advice from all units of the support program
• Source of information to help us improve the UZH Entrepreneur Fellowship program
• Source for statistics that are vital to ensure funding of future fellowships

The reports are confidential and we do not share any content of the report with third party without your consent.