Where Curiosity Meets Innovation
Building on students' curiosity, we challenge the status quo and co-create innovations at the intersection of academia and industry.
About the Program
Accelerating Knowledge Transfer Through Project-Based Education
We have developed the Exploration Lab program to find and validate innovation opportunities at the intersection of academia and industry.
Students are the key contributors. They drive forward and test disruptive ideas with industry partners through rapid, structured exploration — gaining hands-on experience in real-world, high-risk innovation projects, innovation management and tech commercialization.
We leverage the capacity of project-based education to explore different approaches to industry challenges, reduce risk, and find the best match among ETH experts. Our students are the "know-how carriers and networkers" exploring innovation opportunities for industry.
Watch our introduction video
Our Makerspace
Where ideas become reality
Fresh Perspectives
Students bring curiosity and new ideas that challenge conventional thinking and inspire innovation.
Structured Exploration
Our Innovation Cascade methodology rapidly filters ideas to focus resources on the most promising opportunities.
Rapid Prototyping
From idea to MVP in 6 months, with hands-on experience in real-world, high-risk innovation projects.
Academia-Industry Bridge
We efficiently test ideas and lower barriers to early-stage collaboration between industry and academia.
Trusted by leading companies
The Journey Through Uncertainty
Valley of Uncertainty
The Risks of New Product Development
High-impact, disruptive ideas come with inherent uncertainty. Traditional corporate R&D often lacks the agility, methods, and tools to navigate this uncertainty, causing many promising innovations to stall before they reach maturity.
Academia faces a similar challenge. When companies approach researchers with open-ended ideas, the response is often either to impose their expertise as solution or to reject the idea altogether. What’s needed is a bridge — a way to efficiently test ideas and lower the barriers to early-stage collaboration between industry and academia.
This is were we come in. We leverage our agile methodology to quickly explore different approaches to industry challenges. We sort out the good from the bad using rapid prototyping and hands-on testing, reducing the required time to produce a MVP by months in comparison to a traditional approach.
High Risk of Failure
Most new product developments fail due to unvalidated assumptions and unpredictable market conditions.
Resource Drain
Without proper de-risking methods, companies waste significant time and capital pursuing unproven paths.
Velocity Challenges
Navigating uncertainty without structured methodology leads to delays and missed market windows.
Our Methodology
Lean De-Risking
The task of an engineer is to find the most efficient path from an idea to the product. It's all about "lean de-risking" — learning as much as possible with limited time and money.
Tackle Assumptions
Challenge assumptions and strive for the fundamental problem.
Isolate the Pain
Relentlessly focus your efforts only on the one most critical uncertainty.
Map Diverse Solutions
Explore a variety of approaches to maximize your chances and discover the unexpected.
Run Lean Tests
Build minimal prototypes and fast test setups for rapid iteration and learning.
Listen to Metrics
Define specific criteria and get experimental data to inform your decisions.
For Students
What to Expect as a Student
Join an intensive 6-month program where you'll drive forward and test disruptive ideas with industry partners through rapid, structured exploration.
Master Lean De-Risking
Learn how to identify critical aspects of an idea and rapidly test solutions with prototypes to turn uncertain ideas into validated decision basis.
Cross-Disciplinary Teamwork
Get exposure to projects and people from other disciplines and work together to solve problems fast.
Launch Your Career
Gain unmatched insight into several companies and countless industry contacts to kickstart your career.
- 6-month innovation traineeship
- On-site collaboration at partnering company
- Close 4:1 mentoring by ETH innovation engineers
- Interdisciplinary student teams
- Hands-on experience with real innovation challenges
- Learn innovation management and tech commercialization
- Rapid prototyping in our own makerspace
Bridge the Gap
Connect your innovation challenges with ETH's brightest minds.
For Partners
What to Expect as an Industry Partner
Got a bold idea that never made it past the whiteboard? A persistent problem your R&D pipeline won't reach for years? We turn those shelved concepts into working MVPs — fast, lean, and without the overhead of traditional research cycles. If you need fresh thinking and real momentum, we're the team to call.
Beyond the deliverable, you gain direct access to ETH Zurich's talent pool and research network. Our students don't just execute — they question assumptions, surface blind spots, and bring an outsider's clarity to problems your team may be too close to see.
Explore Innovation Opportunities
Fresh perspectives and opportunity to match latest knowhow with your business challenges.
Access the ETH Ecosystem
Students act as gateway to ETH Zurich's labs and identify matching experts for follow-up partnerships.
Meet and Recruit ETH Talent
Assess students firsthand, build relationships and be visible as an employer.
Get Challenged and Inspired
Students respectfully challenge your status quo and inspire an agile, fast mindset.
Workshops
Bring Agile Innovation Into Your Organisation
Experience our innovation methodology first-hand in a single day. Our workshops teach the Five Finger Formula and Lean De-Risking — the same methods our students use to turn uncertain ideas into validated solutions using rapid, low-fidelity prototyping.
Pick the format that fits: a workshop with a team challenge to energise your team and build a shared innovation language, or a focused deep dive that applies the methodology to a real problem from your organisation — complete with system mapping, ideation, and rapid prototyping loops.
Learn by Doing
Hands-on innovation methods straight from ETH Zurich.
Get first insights into the art of lean de-risking by navigating uncertainty through rapid, low-fidelity prototyping. Teams learn and apply the Five Finger Formula to solve a fun engineering challenge: constructing an action-packed, consistent, and duration-optimised marble track.
- Full-day format (08:30 – 16:30)
- Up to 16 participants
- Hands-on challenge with low- and high-fidelity build sessions
- Guided by two experienced innovation managers
- Includes prototyping workspace, materials, food & drinks
Your team learns and applies Lean De-Risking — a mindset that brings winning ideas to life faster by spending less on each attempt. We tackle a specific challenge from your own work environment, guiding participants to map the system, identify key pain points, and build, test, and validate preliminary solutions.
- Full-day format (08:30 – 17:00)
- Up to 8 participants
- Centred on your actual business challenge (scoped in a preparatory meeting)
- Three-stage process: system decomposition, ideation, and rapid prototyping loops
- Guided by two experienced innovation managers
- Includes prototyping workspace, materials, food & drinks
The Team
Meet the Innovators
We are experienced innovation facilitators and passionate makers at the office of knowledge transfer and corporate relations.
The Vision
Our 10-Year Goal is to 2x Switzerland's Rate of Innovation
Teach students how to innovate while creating value for the industry.