When you support the Pioneer Fellowships, you are enabling young researchers to turn pioneering ideas into marketable products.

When you support the Excellence Scholarships, you are enabling outstanding Master’s students to focus fully on their studies.

Your support is vital to strengthening our university’s capacity for action: it allows us to drive forward important projects faster, develop innovative solutions for the future and provide support to especially talented students and researchers.

Every piece of the puzzle is valuable when it comes to achieving great things overall.

Janine Wetter knew from a young age that she wanted to study Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich. After all, talking about climate change is easy, but understanding it is significantly harder! Nevertheless, that is precisely her goal – in order to instigate meaningful change. So that she can invest more time and energy into her research, Janine receives support in the form of an Excellence Scholarship, making her one of around 60 students that ETH is able to support in this way each year. They all have one thing in common: their above-average talent and their motivation to find solutions to the greatest challenges of our time.

Thanks to start-up financing in the form of an Pioneer Fellowship, what began as a student project has become the groundbreaking “Scewo Bro”, a high-tech wheelchair that can effortlessly overcome stairs and other obstacles. The two mechanical engineering students Pascal Buholzer and Bernhard Winter joined forces with industrial designer Thomas Gemperle to found the start-up Scewo, which is now keeping a team of over 20 people busy. Every year, 10–15 ambitious Pioneer Fellows receive funding and support as they develop their idea into a marketable product.

For people who suffer from serious heart problems, a heart transplant is often the only effective method of treatment. However, it is hard to come by donor organs for the growing number of patients. Zurich Heart aims to remedy this situation: this large-scale interdisciplinary project of Hochschulmedizin Zürich aims to create an artificial heart that comes as close as possible to its human counterpart in form, function and quality, operates reliably for several years, and thereby saves lives.

Marco Hutter, one of the key names behind ETH’s success in the field of robotics, is an example of what can be achieved with timely support. One of the first cornerstones was laid in 2007 with an Excellence Scholarship. During his doctorate, Hutter developed what began as a single leg in a Master’s project into an autonomous, walking robot that can independently navigate challenging terrain and is used for tasks such as search and rescue. Supported by a Pioneer Fellowship, Hutter teamed up with other ETH engineers to found the spin-off ANYbotics. In 2015, he was appointed an Assistant Professor.

The mini-refinery system on the roof of ETH Zurich’s machinery laboratory can produce renewable fuels – from nothing but sunlight and air! Researchers have succeeded in using concentrated solar radiation to split CO2 and H2O extracted directly from ambient air. This allows them to produce a specific synthesis gas that can then be processed into methanol or kerosene. What already works on a small scale on the roof of ETH represents a key step towards the production of renewable fuels that could contribute to greater sustainability in aviation and maritime transport.

Even everyday tasks, such as climbing stairs, can present a significant challenge for people with physical disabilities. Intelligent assistive technology such as the Myosuit are intended not only to provide assistance, but also to offer independence and improved quality of life. Like a second layer of muscle, the Myosuit wraps around the body and offers strength and stability to people with muscle weakness in the knees, hips and ankles – sensors detect the wearer’s movements and provide the necessary support at the right moment. With the Rehab Initiative, ETH is providing an important boost with a view to ensuring that research is better oriented towards the needs of people and that scientific insights find their way into practical applications faster.