Lausanne, November 22, 2022 – Up until recently based at the former Chalet-à-Gobet farm, the EHL Hospitality Business School Innovation Hub is evolving and moving to Epalinges as of March 1, 2023. The Chalet-à-Gobet address will remain a setting for projects with a new identity in the making. To do this, a Lausanne City - EHL taskforce has been set up. While waiting for the development of a new project, Lausanne City Council wants to keep the premises alive with the current institutions that are happy to remain and by bringing in new ones, as is the case with the EVAM refugee reception center.
A new strategic direction
Despite the turbulence caused by the pandemic, the EHL Group has shown resilience in an industry undergoing major transformation. However, this pivotal period has given rise to some deep reflection, in particular on the central role of innovation within an academic institution which will soon be celebrating its 130th anniversary. Analyzes carried out internally have concluded that there is a need for a location change of the innovation activities in order for them to be brought back to the premises belonging to EHL at Grand Chemin in Epalinges. Hence, the entrepreneurial community and their activities will move from March 1, 2023, to this site and will benefit from new synergies.
Use the campus as a think tank
“Given the opportunities offered by our new campus, the outline of the Innovation Hub that we had designed at the time has been redefined. Under the impetus of our new CEO, Markus Venzin, we are going to strengthen the innovation center within our ecosystem in order to make it a central pillar that benefits the EHL community, our partners, and more broadly, our industry," explains Winnaretta Zina Singer, Head of Innovation Hub at EHL. The new integration should soon make it possible to implement spaces for experimenting and testing technological innovations in the field of hospitality, as imagined by start-ups, partners, researchers and EHL student entrepreneurs in several residences and catering points on the Lausanne campus.