Start Your Venture at OST

In Switzerland, there is a wide and often hard-to-navigate variety of funding opportunities for aspiring founders. In a non-binding initial consultation, we work with you to determine which funding options (e.g., Gebert Rüf Foundation, Innosuisse Startup Projects, Startfeld) could be suitable for your case.

In our Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs, we educate specialists and generalists across six departments.

All Bachelor’s students interested in starting a business can take the interdisciplinary courses “Prototyping for Startup Ideas” and “Startup – The Path to Founding.

In the CAS Innovation Project, you will learn the tools and methods used by successful entrepreneurs and apply them directly to develop and advance your own startup idea.

Through many publicly funded research projects, OST experts develop the scientific and technological foundations that may be essential for your startup idea.

If your venture requires new technologies to be developed or existing ones to be brought to market — and you reach the limits of your own expertise — funding opportunities are available that enable OST researchers to collaborate with you and support your project.

We frequently work with the following research funding instruments:

• Innoscheck
• Innosuisse Projects
• NRP Projects
• INOS 

Get in touch with us to explore whether your project could benefit from publicly funded research collaborations at OST.

Our institutes offer the deep expertise of professors, lecturers, and research staff through dedicated service projects. Through direct project engagements, you gain fast and direct access to expert knowledge, for example for:

• Building prototypes
• Testing prototypes
• Facilitating innovation and creativity workshops

Students from six different departments bring diverse perspectives and help you test and refine your ideas. The form of collaboration varies depending on the degree program, but the following formats have proven particularly valuable for founders:

• Industry Projects: Students in the Industrial Engineering program work with you to develop sustainable products and the business models behind them.
• WTT Projects: Students in Business Administration and Business Information Systems programs help establish the business foundations of your venture, for example through market, stakeholder, and needs analyses, as well as by developing different business concepts.
• Bachelor’s, Master’s & CAS Theses: Most degree programs enable collaboration with companies as part of final theses. The best way to explore these opportunities is to get in touch with the program directors of the respective Bachelor’s or Master’s programs.

The OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences offers a wide range of infrastructure across our campuses in Rapperswil, St. Gallen, and Buchs. If you need short-term access to space as a founder, we offer rentals such as:

• Meeting and training rooms
• Creative and event spaces
• Laboratories and cleanrooms