Enterprise for Society Center

Enterprise for Society E4S – an UNIL-IMD-EPFL collaboration

Institutions of higher learning have a responsibility to help individuals and organizations overcome and anticipate societal challenges and their changes. The success in these two missions, requires combining multiple perspectives. It is in this spirit that three institutions of academic excellence, the University of Lausanne through its Faculty of Business and Economics (UNIL-HEC), the Institute for Management Development (IMD) and the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), under the stewardship of its College of Management of Technology, have joined forces in Enterprise for Society (E4S).

E4S is dedicated to helping society overcome its challenges and spearheading the transition toward a more resilient, environmentally responsible and inclusive economy.

TRAIN

We train the next generation of leaders to integrate environmental and societal concerns into their business models while resolutely exploiting the promises of new technologies.

INSPIRE

We produce, collect and disseminate frontier research and science-backed evidence with a view of helping enterprises and society develop practices, strategies and policies consistent with rising to the “grand challenges”. E4S’s output takes the form of policy briefs, white-papers, media releases and public stakeholder event.

ACTIVATE CHANGE

We strengthen the local start-up and innovation ecosystems by establishing and feeding a collaborative network between start-ups, corporations and students.

Prof. Nouria Hernandez, Rector UNIL

“This is a unique opportunity to take our know-how in sustainability and our long-standing experience, through HEC, in business research and education, and combine them with the core competencies of two major universities – one specialized in technology and the other in management and large corporations.”

Prof. Jean-François Manzoni, President IMD

“We all have the same vision – to innovate constantly and to create research and educational opportunities that meet society’s needs. Through this joint initiative, we can draw on the best each school has to offer through cross-disciplinary projects and programs that, even if we could have offered them individually, will be more effective given together.”

Prof. Martin Vetterli, President EPFL

“Our society has reached a tipping point. By pooling the right kinds of expertise, we can harness science and technology to take our society in the right direction. That is precisely what E4S has been set up to do.”