The actors of change
UCreate
Since 2020, more than 120 projects have benefited from support under the UCreate program. These project leaders reflect the new generation of actors of change at UNIL who are working towards a sustainable future.
Congratulations to all of them for their determination, their creativity and their ability to carry out these projects in parallel with their studies, research or professional activity!
Would you like to take part in the next UCreate cohort?
- All
- Art, history, culture
- Cosmetics, hygiene
- Education (EN)
- Energy, water, environment
- Equality, diversity, inclusion
- Finance (EN)
- Food
- Healthcare, lifescience
- Materials, construction
- Retail, e-commerce (EN)
- Sport (EN)
- Waste management, packaging
NGO stakeholders often find it very difficult to access scientific literature. It is difficult to access, expensive, takes a long time to produce and is not mobile.
A Voice for All offers an application that makes peer-reviewed literature accessible, fast and enjoyable, with a non-monetary subscription option.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
60% of doctoral students stop or extend their studies, and inadequate supervision is correlated with the desire to stop.
48% of academic advisers say they have not been trained to manage a diverse team.
Academly offers a team management tool that helps researchers who want to foster a good working environment by providing relevant, easy-to-access resources on mentoring and leadership.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
20 to 40% of the population suffers from allergies. To seek treatment, patients generally have to go through an emergency department, a GP and/or a GP. This process can take months, from reaction to consultation. What's more, paper allergy passports are expensive, cumbersome, difficult to trace, sometimes illegible and often forgotten by the person concerned.
Allerpass offers a digital allergy passport for monitoring and teaching patients about severe allergies. Allergy sufferers benefit from better care and health monitoring, and doctors save consultation time by having all the information they need to treat their patients properly.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
In the paediatric intensive care unit, measurement poses three problems:
- Assessment: 70 instruments developed for the 4 conditions combined, and the overlap of symptoms increases the mental workload for nurses who have to remember to assess 4 different conditions. When several instruments are available, this can create confusion and nurses have been known to choose the wrong instrument for the wrong condition.
- Once the assessment has taken place, the second challenge is to document it. 1 instrument out of 4 is integrated into the electronic medical record, while the other 3 are on paper. Of the instruments integrated into the electronic medical record, only 12% automatically calculate a score. Calculating scores and remembering to document them in the hectic environment of the PICU therefore represents a workload.
- The third challenge is interpreting the scores. There is a lack of guidance on how to interpret and use the scores and, at present, no instrument has usable score-based EB recommendations.
Alleviate's mission is to develop a simple tool to help relieve unnecessary suffering. It is an electronic tool that combines four previously developed measuring instruments and eliminates overlapping elements. It is patient-centred and relies on continuous communication between nurses, which is a unique feature. It ensures that the right instruments are used for each patient at the right time. An internal scoring algorithm calculates a score for each condition and, based on this score, makes evidence-based management recommendations.
Switzerland's first archaeological association dedicated to the general public.
📆 Spring 2020 cohort
Innovative market place and creative ecosystem for representing, promoting and linking Swiss and Caribbean artists.
📆 Autumn 2021 cohort
99% of people on the autism spectrum face problems of inclusion in the workplace, whether through a lack of accessibility to certain jobs, or a lack of adaptation of working environments.
Through participative expertise, intelligent match making and long-term support, Atipikey helps people on the autism spectrum in their working lives. It also trains companies to make the most of atypical talent by creating personalised training on and through inclusion.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
46% of young people feel that they are poorly informed about what can be done about climate change. 70% of young people feel very or extremely worried about climate change.
Cap'Able offers a game covering all aspects of climate change. Validated by experts, it aims to inform in order to inspire, with game mechanics inspired by real life.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
Discover their website : http://www.cap-able.ch/
Organising the funeral of a loved one comes with a lot of constraints: it can be difficult to decide how to celebrate a life in the image of the deceased, to include family living abroad, to decide on the venue for the ceremony, and to make these decisions in a short space of time. The officiant generally encourages classic, sober services, which are not necessarily in keeping with the personality of the deceased. The rooms may be poorly equipped, the sound is of poor quality, and the musical and video options are limited.
Cérémonie Mérillat is proposing to integrate digital technology for a 'goodbye' that knows no boundaries, to enable immersion through digital devices. This integration is also intended to be multi-sensory and creative, so as to create a dynamic experience that reflects the personality of the deceased (video projection, sound of the deceased's voice, light and sound ambience).
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
Film producers systematically struggle to find funding, gauge public taste, gain visibility and systematise the distribution of copyright.
CineCapsule offers a film platform that aims to become a social and collaborative platform for film creation based on blockchain technology. By pitching their film project on video, producers can find funding and join a community of film aficionados.
📆 Autumn 2021 cohort
To create an innovative web platform for humanitarian projects combining crowdfunding, information exchange and micro-decision-making.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
Information about hockey news is scattered across several platforms and sources, in several languages. Since it is provided by federations and institutions, the content is conventional and not very captivating, which makes for a boring experience for enthusiasts.
Clubhouse Hockey is a free mobile application that brings together all the content and information in one place to help all hockey fans enjoy their sport.
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
Today, marine laboratory research projects are very important for understanding the value of the ocean and the impact we have on it. However, these projects lack the resources to be effective.
To address this issue, COcean2 is using the voluntary carbon market. This allows organisations to purchase verified emissions reductions in the form of carbon credits. On this market, only 0.2% of current projects are linked to marine ecosystems. Yet 83% of the global carbon cycle passes through the oceans.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
Discover their website: https://www.cocean2.org/
The physical and digital community of sustainable alternatives.
📆 Spring 2020 cohort
Discover their website : https://convergence-durable.ch/
Only 10% of museums are part of a sustainability network. Management generally lacks the resources to invest, the necessary skills and other priorities.
- Culture for the Planet proposes a model with 3 components:
- Creating a benchmark to help situate the museum within the United Nations' sustainable development objectives
- Providing a series of workshops to implement these measures and communicate on sustainability in museums
Offer an alliance between two cultural institutions
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
Diabetes is increasingly prevalent in developing countries, affecting an estimated 422 million people. Diabetes kills and cost 760 billion dollars in 2019. Many healthcare professionals do not have the necessary knowledge, due to a lack of circulation of knowledge.
DIA4U offers a customised train-the-trainer programme to improve diabetes knowledge and care in developing countries.
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
Discover their website : https://dia4u.ch/
On average, a Swiss family of 3 will consume 191 litres of water per person per day in 2021. At the same time, access to data and information can reduce water consumption by 20-30%.
EcoCompteur is proposing the hire of real-time data meters linked to a specific water outlet. These meters would be linked to a monitoring application.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
The current structure of EMSs poses a number of ethical challenges. These include a number of dilemmas, such as:
- Should nursing staff support a resident's request for assisted suicide?
- At what point should care staff restrict the freedom or autonomy of a resident suffering from dementia?
- How can care teams manage situations where residents refuse life-saving treatment?
EthiS supports EMS decision-makers by equipping their teams through a co-creative process that enables them to find shared and appropriate responses to everyday ethical problems.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
On the current market, there are no tools that align faith, sustainable development objectives and environmental, social and governance criteria. There is no standardised tool that bridges the gap between faith and finance.
Faith-based metrics offers support to financial and religious players and international organisations in their faith-based finance initiatives, by providing them with the latest scientific research in the field, particularly in terms of developing measurement and evaluation tools.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
By 2022, 45% of young people in Switzerland will be choosing to be eco-responsible consumers. Yet local shops are often more expensive than the big chains.
Green is proposing to make eco-responsible products accessible by means of a card worth 20 francs a year, entitling holders to discounts in all types of local shops in the Lausanne region.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
Discover their website: https://lacartegreen.ch/
Data-driven solutions for a sustainable environment.
📆 Autumn 2020 cohort
Discover their website: www.grinsight.ch
Member-owned supermarket helping food buyers who want to contribute to a sustainable and fair future by allowing them to co-define the product range and by making products more accessible through members' regular, unpaid involvement in the project.
📆 Autumn 2020 cohort
Discover their website : https://www.gueter.be/en/
Innovative solution of connected crutches (Smart crutches) and mobile app to collect data and provide live information to patients and physiotherapists.
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
On average, doctors spend 5 hours a day dealing with administrative tasks, which amounts to 5 to 20 hours of overtime a week. This accumulated fatigue can lead to medical errors, costing the State CHF 30 million a year. What's more, patients are only given an average of fifteen minutes per consultation.
Hippocampus offers an application to increase doctors' efficiency and reduce their overtime, with assisted note-taking, an intelligent task manager and automatic generation of clinical documentation.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
Most players in hydrogeology rely on old working methods that are largely outdated and incomplete. As things stand, it is difficult to collect information, generate new in-situ data, share and re-use information, and process, analyse and represent data.
HydroGeoNext is a platform that offers a wide range of solutions for analysing and processing field data and hydrogeological tests, as well as a dynamic, collaborative hydrogeological database.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
In the entrepreneurial world, ideas and iterations tend to get lost. Templates and canvas are time-consuming, and feedback is hard to come by.
Iterator helps innovators minimise risk by reducing the time and cost of iterations and increasing the effectiveness of hypothesis testing.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
Digital assistance to facilitate the organisation and transmission of scientific data.
📆 Spring 2020 cohort
Discover their website: https://www.jawslab.science/
Learning a foreign language can be challenging: it's a time-consuming process, the books are generally unengaging and not personalised. Applications offer irrelevant subjects, the texts are not up to date and there is a certain stagnation over the long term.
LingoRank wants to make learning a new language part of everyday life, by offering articles and videos with integrated translations on areas of interest.
📆 Autumn 2022 cohort
A network of one-to-one mentoring relationships between students and children through a shared scientific or social activity.
📆 Autumn 2020 cohort
Offering sustainable protein sources with a high positive impact. Innovative, healthy and local insect-based food products.
📆 Spring 2020 cohort
Discover their website: www.lowimpactfood.ch
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young men. Of the 674 panelists, 60% consider the subject taboo.
Maison Jaune is a psychological support platform offering a range of personalised solutions designed to put professionals in touch with patients by breaking down mental health taboos with a sense of humour. Several formats are available:
- Le Cabinet, for online psychological counselling
- Le Divan, for counselling by certified psychologists
- Le Bureau, for training programmes run by certified trainers
- La Tablée, with discussion groups
- La Bibliothèque, for informative content
📆 Autumn 2021 cohort
MatchDay helps public authorities and sports organisations to assess, design, plan and develop their sports projects in line with the three pillars of sustainability: financial sustainability, social balance and environmental responsibility.
📆 Spring 2022 cohort
There is a growing need for accessible and efficient equipment to support authentication, so as to add vital scientific evidence to their reports. Scientific analysis is dedicated only to works of art of high value, and is expensive, time-consuming and requires transfer to a laboratory, which can damage the works.
MATIS offers an affordable and portable multi-spectral camera for authenticating works of art (paintings, manuscripts, tapestries, etc.), revealing precious information such as intaglio drawings, erased signatures or pigments.
📆 Spring 2022 cohort
🎊 MATIS won CHF 150,000 in November 2022 at the BCN Innovation Awards.
Discover their website: https://www.matis.art/
Patients seeking transfusions face a long and tedious process: they have to wait an average of 4 to 8 months for a consultation, are dependent on expensive treatment and random donations.
Mini Marrow is an in situ, long-term platelet production system as an advanced biomedical therapy for transfusion-dependent patients.
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
Of the 8.2 million people living in Latin America, 68,000 are Bolivian women. 87% of them feel they suffer gender discrimination. Access to entrepreneurship is also felt to be much more difficult for women.
Munay is proposing to set up a digital community for Bolivian and Latin American women entrepreneurs, with the aim of giving them knowledge, visibility and easier access to investors.
📆 Autumn 2021 cohort
Cultural education workshops in schools. Discover and experience the museum without leaving home.
📆 Autumn 2020 cohort
Discover their website: https://museealemporter.ch/
Discover their project here.
To reduce plastic waste, NOW Care offers an alternative powdered shampoo and shower gel which, once mixed with water, has the same benefits as the consumer's favourite products.
📆 Autumn 2020 cohort
Discover their website: www.nowcare.ch
Discover the project here.
People suffering from addiction to illegal substances very often suffer from loneliness, marginalisation and even social exclusion. They may also suffer from anxiety and a difficult relationship with their body, as well as difficulty in expressing themselves verbally and inadequate emotional management. Relapses are common, and drug use is often uncontrolled.
Nuancing proposes to run workshops that include the psychological and physical dimensions of addiction treatment, for groups of 7 people, for one hour a week for 3 months in specialised institutions.
📆 Spring 2022 cohort
182 million parcels were delivered in Switzerland in 2020, representing 373 kilos of recycled waste per inhabitant per year, 38% of which was cardboard.
Pakolo offers a 100% Swiss-made adjustable and reusable parcel for e-commerce platforms that care about the environment.
📆 Autumn 2021 cohort
Creating collaborative permaculture gardens for an ecological, social and inclusive transition.
It remains difficult to manage and understand medical information - all the more so during the COVID-19 health crisis. Data storage is siloed, and the issue of data protection is central.
Prevails provides a patient genome and phenome database and platform where individuals and scientists can work together to share information that will accelerate the development of precision treatments for COVID and other health conditions.
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
Supporting students - by students - affected by difficulties and disabilities during their university studies.
📆 Spring 2022 cohort
Helping small, medium-sized and large businesses to manage their waste sustainably by offering them the best possible solution from our network of local service providers.
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
66% of children aged between 12 and 30 months use a screen. This has a number of negative impacts, including difficulties in regulating emotions, delayed language development, lower IQ, inattention and mental health problems (low self-esteem, depressive symptoms, isolation).
Repère Digital is its own web platform containing a selection of free information to raise awareness, as well as a parenting pathway and coaching with an advisor.
📆 Spring 2023 cohort
Use recycled plastic bricks to build temporary structures.
📆 Spring 2022 cohort
Sleep disorders are very common and represent an enormous burden for society. To improve diagnosis and monitor the effectiveness of treatments, new methods of recording sleep are needed.
SleepSensor offers a three-level solution:
- A non-intrusive sensor-based system for acquiring physiological data during sleep.
- Machine learning algorithms for signal processing, feature extraction and automatic classification of sleep and wake stages.
- Machine learning algorithms for analysing patient data.
Shanaz has been awarded an Innosuisse grant as well as Innotrek in 2022.
📆 Spring cohort 2021
Poor mental health is the leading cause of disability among young people worldwide, affecting 1 in 5 young people and 35% of children and adolescents in Switzerland. Access to psychologists remains limited, especially in rural areas. Between the lack of specialists, the implication of potentially missing school hours and the stigma, consulting a specialist remains complicated.
SwissDTx offers a digital collaboration platform enabling psychotherapists and their patients to conduct and monitor tailored treatment programmes remotely.
📆 Spring 2022 cohort
Community association offering support, guidance and counselling to people without legal representation.
📆 Spring 2021 cohort
The fashion industry accounts for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 20 years, clothing production has increased 400-fold.
Unidress offers a digital platform for the responsible sale and repair of second-hand clothes that prioritises the digital traceability of clothes to reduce the ecological footprint of users. Thanks to its collaborative sharing model, it promotes a local economy while increasing the lifespan of clothes.
📆 Autumn 2021 cohort
Discover their website: https://www.unidress.ch/
The 370,000 SMEs in the services sector need help with their ecological transition. They often feel that they don't have the time to look into these issues, feel that they have done all they can, are not convinced of the real consequences of these measures, or doubt that they can do anything concrete and impactful at their level.
ZeroCarb provides an innovative and accessible carbon emissions calculator for small and medium-sized businesses. It clearly highlights the measures for improving the carbon footprint and the cost involved. Half-yearly monitoring is then offered, as well as publication of the result and its reduction target, as an example to others.
📆 Autumn 2021 cohort
