How Novartis and EPFL built a long-term collaboration grounded in structure and shared ambition.Novartis is a global pharmaceutical company and home to a broad portfolio of established medical brands. They operate across a wide range of therapeutic areas – from oncology, immunology, to neuroscience and cardiovascular disease.Like many companies in their sector, their work relies on a balance of scientific discovery and development, regulation, and patient need. To succeed, they can’t rely solely on established ways of working. If they’re to develop new medicines for their patients, they need to keep pace with the ever-shifting world of science and technology. And that means access to the newest research and a diversity and richness of ideas.Novartis has a long history of collaborating with leading academic institutions across the world, particularly those that advance their mission in innovative medicine. As part of their strategic talent-attraction and scientific excellence agenda, they naturally focus on a small group of top institutions whose strengths align with their future needs.Building on this focus, they recognized that sustainable, institution-level partnership create far greater long-term impact than sporadic peer to peer interactions. They enable co-shaping the education of future scientists, influencing curricula, and develop a robust innovation ecosystem that benefits both the company and the broader scientific community.Within this broader strategy intent, EPFL emerged as a particularly important partner, because of its strong scientific and engineering expertise, global standing, and alignment with Novartis innovation priorities. While early exploration work began before 2021, the formal need analysis conducted that year confirmed EPFL’s relevance as a strategic institution capable of contributing to cutting-edge science, technology development, and long-term talent pipelines.“I’m an EPFL Alumni,” confided Hicham Majd, a member of Novartis Technical R&D Innovation Council. “I know first-hand the ideas and technology coming out of academia are shaping the future of medicine.”For Novartis, the opportunity to work with EPFL went beyond individual research projects. There was a clear ambition to build longer-term relationships with local talent and increase the company’s visibility amongst EPFL students.We wanted to be at the heart of that. We wanted to find new opportunities, attract young talent, and increase our competitive edge. Students were invited to the Novartis Campus in Basel to learn more about how we approach research and innovation. We have also introduced a case study within a Life Science course focused on regulatory aspects as another way to connect with students. Some of them have even gone on to successful careers at Novartis and we aspire to scale it up.These early interactions confirmed the potential of closer collaboration between Novartis and EPFL. But where to start? Both EPFL and Novartis are complex systems. EPFL is composed of five different schools encompassing over 370 research labs, centers, and platforms. It can be hard to navigate.And so, in 2021, Novartis and EPFL started discussions to make the move beyond sporadic collaborations and build something more structured.We needed a guide to explore and identify potential synergies. In the past, we’d always worked on one-off contracts, but then we wanted to create a more strategic partnership, a long-term relationship. We needed someone on hand who could find areas of common interest and mutual benefit and make the right connections with the right people at the right time.It was clear Novartis needed a dedicated conduit between the company and the university. They needed someone who understood both commercial priorities and academic realities, someone who could help them make the most of the resources and opportunities available.This is the role EPFL KNOVA platform was created to play. KNOVA’s personalised support, combining the guidance of a dedicated key account manager with monthly immersions in the EPFL ecosystem helped identify the most relevant connections and ensured the right people were in touch with each other, offering the highest chance of success for both parties.And Novartis was all-in. In 2023, Hicham Majd, Arnaud Grandeury, Mateja Kramer and other TRD Innovation Council colleagues regularly participated in the program’s activities, visits, and workshops, while developing the roadmap hand in hand with their key account manager from EPFL’s Vice Presidency for Innovation and Impact, Pascale Van Landuyt. Together, they started to scout the university’s laboratories and campuses for inspiration.The journey started with a collaboration roadmap to create a clear focus for the partnership. It identified the topics that would benefit the future of Novartis while also supporting EPFL’s objectives. Novartis departments were asked to submit their project ideas to Hicham, who shared them with Pascale. She then used her experience to map out the most viable collaborations into a shortlist.The Novartis Team and Pascale Van Landuyt established a systematic validation process to further refine the list. This process included individual meetings and ongoing dialogue between EPFL professors and Novartis research teams. Throughout this stage, Novartis benefited from KNOVA’s tailored support, which facilitated the identification of optimal connections and ensured effective communication among stakeholders, maximizing the probability of success for all involved.Out of those efforts, the first research project was agreed and signed in 2023. By 2025, those conversations had been translated into concrete collaborations across all five schools at EPFL. What began as theoretical discussions had evolved into agreed projects. The range of projects – spanning topics from AI and large language models in oncology, to molecule modelling – reflects how the partnership has both broadened the scope and shifted the way Novartis approaches innovation.“While we naturally would gravitate towards working with teams in basic or life sciences, with the reflection and support of KNOVA, we actually found far more opportunities than we had hoped for,” said Hicham Majd. “From looking at micro-pollutant kinetics and the impact our drugs have on the environment, to modelling complex molecules and mechanisms of action in pharma, the range of new ideas and approaches we’ve been exposed to is astounding,” said Mateja Kramer and Arnaud Grandeury.To support the growing pipeline of projects, the Technology Transfer Office has also become part of the process. They have developed a comprehensive framework agreement, streamlining the IP process and easing contract negotiations.Over the years, the collaboration continues to evolve. The trust built between Novartis and EPFL has created space for new ideas, new projects, and new ways of working together.Partnerships like this don’t happen overnight. A long-term approach is the key to creating a partnership that’s robust and sustainable. That time invested in working together has been a critical part of our joint success, allowing teams to align on objectives, navigate the scientific and organisational complexity, and build the foundations for effective collaboration.The journey Novartis has taken is not a one-off. Building strong relationships between industry and academia depends on open dialogue, trust, and clear structure. When those are in place, partnerships can move beyond individual projects and develop into something with a long-term perspective.To learn more about how to take part in similar collaborations with EPFL you can get in touch with the KNOVA team via the Industrial Liaison Office by emailing [email protected]