Region of Winterthur

Just 20 minutes by train from Zurich is Winterthur - Switzerland's sixth-largest city. In recent years, this large city with an industrial past has developed into one of the country's most important technology locations and has become a true birthplace for innovative start-ups. Thanks to its many educational institutions, the region has a particularly large pool of technically trained specialists.

Winterthur has produced countless entrepreneurial success stories. The stair-climbing wheelchairs from Scewo, the braces start-up Bestsmile or the pioneering electric trucks from Designwerk. These are all results of a locally rooted and internationally intertwined technological ecosystem. It is companies like Autoneum, Sulzer and Kistler that have been shaping this system for many years.

In addition to these well-known "giants", numerous young companies are currently working their way up. The dynamic start-up scene, in which Scewo is also firmly anchored, has found a home to take off in the Technopark Winterthur or the Home of Innovation. Products from the fields of artificial intelligence, digitalization and medical technology are developed, optimized, and sold at these locations.

In order to strengthen the region's most important innovation ecosystems, Technopark Winterthur and the Handelskammer und Arbeitgebervereinigung Winterthur have joined forces with the location promotion agency House of Winterthur to launch a cluster initiative focusing on smart health, smart energy and smart machines. Meanwhile the fuel for the innovation engine remain the several universities for practice-oriented education. The ZHAW, Switzerland's largest university of applied sciences is located in Winterthur. It alone attracts over 10,000 students from Germany and Switzerland. The School of Engineering at ZHAW trains over 2,000 specialists each year in the fields of systems engineering, data science, aviation and computer science, and is known for its close research collaborations with the private sector.