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.
Partnering with industry: real-world examples
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 & Skysoft: Next-Gen Voice AI for ATC Training
Eurocontrol & Skysoft: Next-Gen Voice AI for ATC Training
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.
Inflamalps: Knowledge Graphs & LLMs for Biomedical Research
Inflamalps: Knowledge Graphs & LLMs for Biomedical Research
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
PXL Vision: Advanced Deepfake Detection for Identity Verification
PXL Vision: Advanced Deepfake Detection for Identity Verification
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.
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 here: Innosuisse Guide
IP conditions
Priority right to file patent applications for company with exclusive right in a field of use. Company obtains a non-exclusive license on the project results.
Budget
According to project application. Hourly rates for Idiap ressources are fixed by Innosuisse.
Innosuisse covers Idiap's salary costs; the company is required to contribute at least 40% of the budget (35% in-kind, 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
Intellectual property (IP) terms and conditions, including exclusivity and ownership, are negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
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
Costs cover involved resource salaries plus 17% social charges and 0% overhead.
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