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Swiss educational heavyweight expands into Germany

ETH Zurich
ETH President Joel Mesot (left) and Reinhold R. Geilsdoerfer, Managing Director of the Dieter Schwarz Foundation for Science introduce the Germany plan. © Keystone / Michael Buholzer

The Federal Technology Institute Zurich (ETH), one of Switzerland’s leading universities, is expanding into Germany with the cooperation of the foundation of Lidl founder Dieter Schwarz. 

The plan is to build a new teaching and research center in Heilbronn, the hometown of the Lidl founder.

“Lidl is worth it” – the German discount chain’s advertising slogan now also applies to ETH. Thanks to donations from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation (DSS), around 20 new professorships will be created in Zurich and on the new Heilbronn educational campus over the next 30 years, ETH President Joël Mesot said at a media conference on Friday.

The new professorships will, among other things, focus on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI). 

As a first step, two new professorships in the field of computer science and data science will be established in Zurich. 

The foundation does not want to disclose the exact amount that DSS makes available to ETH, said its managing director Reinhold Geilsdörfer.

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