CROSS – Collaborative Research on Science and Society

The Collaborative Research on Science and Society (CROSS) Program encourages interdisciplinary projects that deal with current issues in society and technology, and that are carried out as a collaboration between researchers from EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) and UNIL (Université de Lausanne).

Through an annual call for projects, CROSS provides competitive grants (up to CHF 60,000/project) to support the preparatory phase of new research endeavors with a view to obtaining major funding.

Proposals must come from joint UNIL-EPFL teams, which bring together specialists in the human and social sciences on the one hand, with specialists from life sciences, natural sciences or engineering on the other.

CROSS call 2026

Open to all topics

Look at the call

CROSS 2025

Open to all topics

See projects

CROSS 2024

Open to all topics

See projects
iStock, credits: Bulat Silvia

CROSS 2023

Crisis

See projects

CROSS 2022

Responsible innovation

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Past CROSS projects

from 2012 to 2021

See projects

CROSS news

© 2025 EPFL, Daryl Jeker

CROSS program celebrates 12 years of interdisciplinary research

— The CROSS Conference 2024, organized by the EPFL College of Humanities (CDH), brought together experts from EPFL and the University of Lausanne (UNIL) to discuss projects supported over the past twelve years. Held on Friday, December 13, 2024, the conference provided a platform for researchers to present their findings and explore the future of science and society collaboration.

CROSS 2025 © iStock - beekeepx

Climate, robotics and exoskeletons for the 4 CROSS 2025 projects

— The CROSS (Collaborative Research on Science and Society) program unveils the four winners of its 2025 call for projects. These projects combine the natural sciences and engineering with the humanities and social sciences to address some of society's most pressing challenges.

Photo caption and credit are indicated in the text below © City of Lausanne digitization workshop.

On the trail of pollution in Lausanne

— A team of researchers from EPFL, UNIL, and Unisanté have published a report that goes through the legacy of pollution from a trash incinerator that burned in the Lausanne Vallon neighborhood from 1958 to 2005. On March 27, they presented their research to the residents of the Vallon neighborhood.

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