Switzerland Innovation Park East
Partner
EMPA
Health technologies are a research focus at the Empa site in St.Gallen. Here, Empa concentrates on the development of soft materials (polymers, hydrogels, etc.) for medical applications in and on the human body. She researches new materials and systems that protect and support people in everyday life. Empa has invested several million Swiss francs in St.Gallen in recent years in the areas of bioanalytics and process technologies.
Empa not only maintains close contacts with the Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne as well as with cantonal universities and hospitals. It also has excellent international networks, including via the World Materials Research Institutes Forum (WMRIF). This network of 50 institutes promotes innovations in materials science.
ST.GALLEN CANTON HOSPITAL
The Kantonsspital St.Gallen is the only non-university hospital in Switzerland with a high-quality track record in research. In 2019 alone, the more than 85 qualified employees, who mainly conduct research in the clinical field, published more than 400 publications. The medical research center of the cantonal hospital comprises the following units:
- Clinical Trials Unit – Support for translational and clinical research projects
- Institute of Immunobiology – focus: tumor immunology, infectious and autoimmune diseases
- Research laboratories to support clinical trials
The Kantonsspital St.Gallen is well networked in the field of research. The cantonal hospital is a founding member of the Swiss Clinical Trial Organization, which coordinates national and international multi-centre studies, and has an important position in the Swiss Association for Clinical Cancer Research. The researchers at the cantonal hospital raise around CHF 10 million in third-party funding for research and further education every year, including from the Swiss National Science Foundation, Innosuisse, the European research funding program and the Human Frontiers program.
RESEARCH | ST.GALLEN CANTON HOSPITAL
The Medical Research Center of the Cantonal Hospital of St.Gallen works closely with research teams from the “Health and Performance” department at Empa St.Gallen.
The scientific excellence and the technological and organizational requirements at the cantonal hospital and at Empa make projects and product developments possible in these areas:
- wound care and hygiene
- healthy environment and food
- personalized medicine
- telemedicine
- aging in society
UNIVERSITY OF ST.GALLEN (HSG)
The University of St.Gallen (HSG) is one of the leading business universities in Europe and is also a university for law and social sciences as well as for international relations. The close networking of studies, further education and research enjoys high priority. The largely autonomously organized institutes of the HSG finance themselves to a large extent.
In connection with Park Ost, these institutes and centers are particularly relevant:
- Institute for Business Informatics IWI-HSG
- Institute of Computer Science ICS-HSG
- Institute for Technology Management ITEM-HSG
- Center for Digital Health Interventions (collaboration with Mobile Health Systems Lab at ETH Zurich)
- Center for Innovation
The HSG has excellent national and international networks. It maintains contacts and partnerships with around 200 universities around the world. In research, the University of St.Gallen cooperates with global companies such as BMW (Customer Foresight Center), BASF, Bosch (IoT Lab), Bühler, Daimler, SAP, Hilti, SBB and Swisscom.
OST - EASTERN SWISS UNIVERSITY OF APPLICATIONS
Various institutes of the OST conduct research in areas that are also central to the Innovationspark Ost. Cooperation in the innovation park can be assumed here:
- Development and use of management systems
- Digitization, ICT, IoT
- digital health
- measuring technology
- Development and application of sensors and actuators
- Development and processing of materials
- Optical and photonic systems
- Use of modeling and simulation
Here are examples of current OST reference projects in the areas of health technologies, digitization and the MEM industry:
- Personalized medicine: A cancerous tumor reveals through its DNA which drugs are most effective against it – as long as the genome can be determined quickly and precisely. A process was developed at the HSR that beats all current solutions worldwide. Learn more
- Disinfection with light: Reliable disinfection is essential in medicine, in animal husbandry or in drinking water. UVC radiation from lamps containing mercury is often used for this purpose. In the future, mercury-free UVC LEDs will be an alternative. Learn more
- Washable e-textiles: Thanks to a special technique, LEDs can now be electrically connected to the textiles in a very robust manner, which means that they can be washed without any problems.
RHYSEARCH
RhySearch’s precision manufacturing division operates a research center for high and ultra-precision machining, with high-precision machine tools and measuring devices in a temperature-controlled manufacturing laboratory.
The Optical Coating division is a competence center with high-end coating systems and a highly specialized laser laboratory for layer analysis.
STARTING FIELD
Startfeld is part of the Innovationspark Ost. In the innovation park, research is carried out together with scientific institutions, in the start field the start-ups find the business competence for the implementation in marketable products.
The Startfeld network was founded in 2010 by Empa, the University of St.Gallen, the FHS St.Gallen and the city of St.Gallen.
