Industry Collaborations

Idiap actively facilitates technology transfer and innovation, fostering successful collaborations with the industry and nurturing the creation of impactful tech startups.

Our dedicated technology transfer team collaborates closely with businesses of all sizes—from early startups to established corporations—to research and develop solutions that address their specific needs and challenges.

Below you’ll find a selection of industry collaborations supported by diverse funding types, carried out with companies of all sizes and sectors, and spanning projects of varying durations.

 EUROCONTROL

Funding: tender / call for project by Eurocontrol

• Project collaboration with three partners, Eurocontrol France, Skysoft Swiss and Idiap

• Joint development of technology for pseudo-pilot simulator, i.e., voice enabled technologies, which can replace real pilots by a machine in ATC simulator.

• Development of voice-enabled technologies, integrated into the overall architecture of pseudo-pilot simulator. The technology is now under testing.

ABROAD

Funding: The Ark NPR, 18 months

In collaboration with Inflamalps.

The project aimed to develop an NLP software infrastructure to support biomedical discovery using large-scale textual interpretation over scientific text (papers and patents).

The project developed a sophisticated NLP platform that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) and knowledge graphs to analyze massive scientific datasets, enabling the automated extraction and structuring of complex biomedical relationships.

For Inflammalps, this platform accelerates antibiotic discovery by autonomously sifting through vast literature to identify potential new drugs and targets, allowing them to significantly reduce research time, minimize resource waste, and focus on the most promising compounds

ROSALIND

Funding: Innosuisse, 18-month collaborative research project

  • Joint research initiative between PXL Vision and Idiap to develop next-generation deepfake detection methods, advancing beyond the current state of the art.
  • Development of a reusable and scalable benchmarking framework enabling rigorous, reproducible evaluation of deepfake detection methods across multiple datasets and metrics.
  • Delivery of a state-of-the-art face deepfake detector, now integrated into PXL Vision's fraud detection portfolio and continuously improved for production use.
  • Significant advances in the understanding and detection of deepfake identity documents, providing the scientific foundations for future product-level document fraud protection.
  • Creation and public release of the first synthetic/fantasy identity document dataset by Idiap, enabling the broader research community to accelerate progress in document deepfake detection.
  • Strengthened PXL Vision's scientific leadership and product innovation by combining production-ready technology, foundational research, and open scientific contributions to address the rapidly growing threat of AI-generated identity fraud.
Testimonials
Working with Idiap over two years was an enriching experience, from the level of expertise to flexibility of approach and openness to new ideas. The product developed as a result of this collaboration is an AI platform (GraphRAG) that minimizes hallucinations, provides insights based on traceable facts, and highlights non-obvious connections via a knowledge graph.
Dr. Nasir Ahmad
Dr. Nasir Ahmad
Managing Partner at Basinghall Analytics
We approached Idiap with an initial project idea in search of expertise in AI development, and the collaboration has been excellent from the start. We worked with highly skilled people who provided valuable guidance and practical insights throughout the process. What we particularly appreciate is their pragmatic approach to research and development, which closely matches OPPAL’s philosophy: developing solutions that are not only innovative, but also operational, reliable, and truly usable in the field.
Jérémie Moulin
Jérémie Moulin
Director at OPPAL
Eyeware was born from research conducted at Idiap, and our collaboration has remained a key driver of innovation ever since. Beyond world-class research partnerships, Idiap has provided a continuous pipeline of talented researchers and a uniquely supportive ecosystem that allows expertise and resources to flow between academia and industry, helping startups like ours scale while staying at the cutting edge.
Bastjan Prenaj
Bastjan Prenaj
Co-Founder at Eyeware

Models of collaboration

Collaborations between Idiap and industry are governed by a set of standard agreement models. Each model defines the scope of work, IP ownership, publication rights, and applicable costs. The appropriate agreement depends on the nature of the collaboration. 

We offer several types of agreements to structure collaborations with industry:

Type

Swiss-based companies can access Innosuisse funding to co-finance research collaborations with Idiap. Full eligibility conditions and application guidance are available at innosuisse.guide 


IP conditions

Priority right to file patent applications for company with exclusive right in a field of use. Company has a non-exclusive license on the  software. 


Budget

According to project application. Hourly rates are fixed by Innosuisse. 

Innosuisse covers Idiap's salary costs; the company is required to contribute 40% in-kind and 5% in cash.  

Type

Startups and SMEs established in Valais may be eligible for collaboration funding through TheArk. This funding can support a joint research project between your company and Idiap.


IP conditions

IP conditions depend on the type of The Ark funding (innovation project, maturation project, NPR, ...).


Budget

Costs cover involved resource salaries plus 17% social charges and 30% overhead.

Type

Companies can directly fund a research project at Idiap through a research mandate, without requiring external funding such as Innosuisse or TheArk. It can also sponsor a PhD student for more fundamental research project.


IP conditions

All results are owned by the company. Idiap retains the right to publish or present scientific findings.


Budget

Costs cover involved resource salaries plus 17% social charges and 30% overhead 

Type

Companies seeking a long-term research partnership with Idiap can establish a framework agreement covering multiple projects over several years, with predefined conditions for each collaboration. 


IP conditions

 IP conditions are defined on a case-by-case basis during preparation of the framework agreement 


Budget

The company defines an annual budget envelope covering one or more projects. Costs follow the same structure: involved resource salaries plus 17% social charges and 20% overhead. 

Type

Voluntary gift from a company for research support and discovery of new exciting technologies 


IP conditions

Idiap remains the owner of the IPR. No benefit for the company, except acknowledgment of the funding 


Budget

0% overhead 

Partenaires

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