The newly launched Initiative for Media Innovation (IMI) is a consortium of public and private partners including the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG), media group Ringier, the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), and Triangle Azur, a cooperation network between the Universities of Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel. Supported by the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM), IMI is hosted within the EPFL Innovation Park and is open to all private and public organizations, in Switzerland or abroad, active in the media and IT sector.
With an annual budget of 650,000 Swiss francs, IMI will fund research projects in the areas of data journalism, fake news, content discoverability and personalization, artificial intelligence, IoT, immersive experiences, new business models, monetization, and the cultural and social aspects of media. The first calls for proposals will be launched this fall.
Interdisciplinarity as the key to innovation
The strength of the new initiative lies in its interdisciplinary approach. The complementary skills of media professionals and researchers from partner universities will allow to build bridges between creativity and technology and to push new ideas and innovative solutions forward.
