Overview

Swiss Post and the Human-IST Institute at the University of Fribourg have collaborated for several years on a variety of research projects. The HIP Initiative aims to strengthen this partnership and promote innovative research endeavors.

Project development is supported through annual funding, in-kind contributions from Swiss Post and facilitated collaborations by efficiently matching researchers with Swiss Post employees and vice versa. This initiative fosters a mutualistic relationship, allowing both entities to benefit from each other’s expertise. Scholars can challenge their research through real-world use cases, gain access to employees, and explore internal processes to investigate or validate specific research questions. Swiss Post Ltd can benefit from the academic expertise from the different faculties of the University of Fribourg We place particular emphasis on preserving the university's full academic freedom in this collaboration, with the primary objective of fostering meaningful synergies between both institutions.

This partnership, moderated by the Human-IST Institute, enables all researchers at the University of Fribourg to develop activities with Swiss Post Ltd in the areas of innovation, applied research, and continuing education. Freedom of teaching and research is guaranteed at all times, in accordance with the guidelines applicable at the University of Fribourg. Swiss Post Ltd does not influence the methods or results of teaching and research activities in any way, and the recruitment of senior assistants is the responsibility of the university.

This is an exceptional opportunity for researchers to make a meaningful impact on society.

The yearly call for projects

The HIP Initiative promotes the development of new projects through an annual call for proposals. This call allocates 100,000 CHF amongst selected projects and offers support to help kickstart ideas and demonstrate their feasibility and mutual interest. The objetive of this call is to assist researchers with preliminary work that will enable projects to secure larger funding from external sources once the year-long support concludes. For more information, please visit the Call 4 Projects page.