DISCIPLINEA2 Incubation· compared against ~62 Swiss incubators
Tell us about your hub.
38 standalone questions across 6 sections, plus your showcase alumni (3–6 for the public profile), your survey alumni list (8–30 founders for the anonymous feedback survey), your programme catalogue (1–3), and optional profile media. Some answers shape your public hub directory profile, others stay private and only feed your Selection Score. Survey alumni receive an anonymous 15-question survey from ZHAW — their feedback weighs 40% of your overall Selection Score.
🌐 PUBLIC Appears on your profile
🔒 PRIVATE Score only
👥 SURVEY Survey delivery only
★ REQUIRED
○ OPTIONAL
A1 · Identification & organisation10 questions · ~4 min
Identification & organisation.
The basics that define your hub publicly. All A1 fields appear on your hub directory profile. Some are pre-filled from your registration — verify and update as needed.
A1.1
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Organisation name
Your legal entity name as registered. Headline of your hub directory profile.
A1.2
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Legal form
Your institutional setup. Determines the funding-context lens used during peer comparison.
University-based
Public
Non-profit
Private
Corporate
Hybrid
A1.3
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Country
A1.4
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
City / location(s)
Main city. If you operate across multiple sites (like Schlieren-Zurich + Lausanne EPFL), separate with ' & '.
A1.5
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Year of foundation
Used for hub-age cohorting. Hubs founded after 2022 enter the 'Emerging' comparison group, not the established one.
A1.6
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Website
Linked directly from your published profile. Use the canonical URL (no trailing slash, no UTM tags).
A1.7
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
CEO / Managing Director
Full name and exact title — appears on your profile and in editorial coverage.
A1.8
🔒 PRIVATE★ REQUIRED
CEO email
For coordination with the editorial team only. Never published or shared with third parties.
A1.9
🔒 PRIVATE★ REQUIRED
Second contact person
Programme lead, COO, or any operational contact. Used as fallback if the CEO is unreachable during evaluation.
A1.10
🔒 PRIVATE★ REQUIRED
Second contact email
A2 · Programme structure & focus6 questions · ~4 min
Programme structure & focus.
How your hub is structured operationally and what you focus on thematically. Industry focus drives the sub-rankings (Top MedTech Hubs, Top Climate Hubs, etc.) — pick honestly.
A2.1
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Programme formats offered
Multiple selections welcome — many hubs run several formats in parallel. Your discipline (Incubation) selected at registration is the primary one for ranking purposes.
Pre-incubation
Incubation
Acceleration
Venture Builder
Corporate programmes
A2.2
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Average programme duration (months)
Typical length of one programme cycle. For open-ended incubation, use your average tenure of supported startups.
A2.3
🔒 PRIVATE★ REQUIRED
Programmes per year
Number of distinct programme cycles you run annually. Used for capacity scoring; the absolute count stays private.
A2.4
🔒 PRIVATE★ REQUIRED
Startups per cohort (average)
Average number of startups per single cohort or batch. For continuous incubation, use a 12-month rolling average.
A2.5
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Admission process
Your primary intake mechanism. Helps founders understand how to apply.
Open call
Jury-based
Invitation only
Rolling admission
A2.6
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Industry / thematic focus
Industries you actively focus on. This drives the thematic sub-rankings — Top MedTech Hubs, Top Climate Hubs, Top FinTech Hubs. Multiple selections welcome. If your hub is genuinely sector-agnostic, select that — it carries no penalty.
Business & Financial Tech
Consumer Markets
Industrial Tech & Engineering
MedTech & Healthcare
Life Sciences (Pharma/Biotech)
Sustainability & Impact
Sector-agnostic
A3 · Financing model4 questions · ~3 min
Financing model.
How your hub finances itself, and what it expects from startups in return. The fact whether you charge is public; the exact amounts stay private.
A3.1
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Participation fees charged?
Do startups pay a fee to join your programme? Used in the Fairness Index — pro-bono and equity-only models score equally well as fee-charging ones if outcomes match.
Yes
No
A3.2
🔒 PRIVATE★ REQUIRED
Average fee per startup (CHF)
If fees apply, the approximate average per startup per programme cycle. Stays private — used only for peer benchmarking.
CHF
A3.3
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Equity taken from startups?
Do you take an equity stake as part of the programme? Founders filter heavily by this before applying.
Yes
No
A3.4
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Funding sources of the hub
Where your hub itself gets its operational budget. Multiple selections welcome. Used for the Stability Index — diversified funding sources score higher than single-source dependence.
Public funding
University
Corporate partners
Sponsorship
Own revenues
A4 · Services & support9 service checks
Services & support.
Nine concrete service checks. Click each card to mark whether your hub offers that support. The full grid appears on your public profile as a service portfolio matrix — what you don't offer is just as informative for founders as what you do.
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED (ALL 9)
A4.1 Individual mentoring
One-to-one mentoring for portfolio startups.
YES
A4.2 Workshops & training
Structured workshops or training modules.
YES
A4.3 Investor access
Access to angels, VCs, or funding events.
YES
A4.4 Corporate / industry access
Access to corporate partners or pilot opportunities.
?
A4.5 Legal support
Legal or administrative support services.
?
A4.6 IP / regulatory support
IP, certification, or regulatory guidance.
?
A4.7 Office / infrastructure
Office space, coworking, or labs.
YES
A4.8 Internationalisation support
Support for market entry abroad.
?
A4.9 Alumni / post-programme support
Ongoing support after programme completion.
?
A5 · Public profile feature3 minimum · 6 maximum · public
Showcase alumni.
Three to six representative alumni startups for your public hub directory profile. Choose startups that genuinely represent your impact and have given written permission to be associated with your hub publicly.
How showcase alumni differ from survey alumni
Showcase alumni (this section) appear on your public profile — they're your highlights with funding bands and exit status. Survey alumni (next section, A6) are a separate, larger list whose emails go to ZHAW for the anonymous feedback survey that drives 40% of your score. The same founder can appear in both lists.
3/3 — Minimum reached — your public profile is eligible. You can add up to 3 more (max 6). More alumni strengthen the public picture.
🌐 PUBLIC🔒 FUNDING BAND PRIVATE★ 3 MINIMUM
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A6 · The most important step8 minimum · 30 maximum
Nominate alumni founders for the anonymous survey.
These founders will receive a standardised 15-question survey about their experience at your hub. You never see individual responses — only the aggregated score per dimension. Aggregated alumni feedback weighs 40% of your overall Selection Score — making this the single most important section of the entire assessment.
What ZHAW asks your alumni
Mentoring quality, business development support, investor access, corporate access, legal support, infrastructure, internationalisation, value for time invested, contribution to startup development, fairness of fees/equity, and — most critically — "How likely are you to recommend this hub to another founder?" (NPS, the highest-weighted item).
⚠ Critical: founder consent & DSG/GDPR compliance
Only nominate founders who (a) actually completed your programme, and (b) have given you prior consent to be contacted by Hub Selection Switzerland for this anonymous survey. Email addresses are personal data under Swiss DSG and EU GDPR — by submitting names below, you confirm both conditions are met and accept responsibility as data controller for the consent collection.
9/8 — Minimum reached — your hub is eligible for an official Selection Status. You can nominate up to 21 more alumni (max 30). More nominations dramatically improve the statistical reliability of your score and reduce response-rate volatility.
👥 SURVEY ONLY★ 8 MINIMUMAll founder details are confidential — used only for survey delivery, never published, never shared with third parties.
Bulk import options:CSV format: First name, Last name, Email, Startup, Year, Stage
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viii.
ix.
A75 questions · ~3 min
Reach & languages.
Capacity, openness, and accessibility. Most counts are public — they are key benchmarks founders use to compare hubs. Languages drive geographic accessibility, especially for Romandie and Tessin founders.
A7.1
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Total startups supported (since founding)
Cumulative count since your hub's founding. Counts only formally accepted programme participants — not workshop attendees or one-off mentees.
A7.2
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
International startups (%)
Share of supported startups whose primary HQ is outside Switzerland. Used in the Openness Index — Swiss-only and internationally diverse hubs are compared against their respective peers, not against each other.
%
A7.3
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Active mentors
Mentors who have been actively engaged with at least one startup in the last 12 months. Don't include inactive alumni mentors.
A7.4
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Investors actively engaged
Number of distinct investors (angels, VCs, family offices, CVCs) who have either invested in or actively engaged with portfolio startups in the last 12 months.
A7.5
🌐 PUBLIC★ REQUIRED
Programme languages
Languages in which your programme is actively delivered. Critical for Romandie and Tessin founders — they need to know whether they can fully participate. Multiple selections welcome.
English
German
French
Italian
Other
A8 · Your programme catalogue1 minimum · 3 maximum
Programmes & offerings.
List your active programmes with name, short description, and application URL. These appear on your hub directory profile as clickable cards — the primary way founders discover and apply to your offerings.
How these are used
Each programme becomes a card on your public profile with a direct "Apply" button linking to your URL. Founders also discover your programmes through the platform's search ("Find programmes for early-stage MedTech startups"). Keep descriptions concise — 1–2 sentences each.
🌐 PUBLIC★ 1 MINIMUM○ UP TO 3
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ii.
Profile media.
Optional · ~3 min
Optional supplementary content for your public hub directory profile. Strengthens visibility and recognition — does not affect your Selection Score.
Why complete this?
Founders scan hub directory cards visually before reading anything. A clear logo, a sharp tagline, and a real photo of your space dramatically increase profile engagement. Skipping this section is fine — but adding even one image makes a measurable difference. Hubs with full media see 3× more profile visits than text-only ones.
+1
🌐 PUBLIC○ OPTIONAL
Tagline (one sentence)
A short, hub-written one-liner. Appears directly under your hub name on your directory card. Max 120 characters.
0 / 120
+2
🌐 PUBLIC○ OPTIONAL
Hub description
Two to four sentences explaining who you are, what you offer, and what makes you different. Plain language — founders, journalists and partners read this first. Max 500 characters.
0 / 500
+3
🌐 PUBLIC○ OPTIONAL
Hub logo
Square or near-square logo. Used in the directory grid, search results, and at the top of your profile. SVG preferred for crisp rendering at all sizes.
L
limmat-hub-logo.svg
SVG · 512 × 512 · 18 KB · Uploaded just now
+4
🌐 PUBLIC○ OPTIONAL
Hero image (your space, team, or demo day)
A single representative image — coworking space, team photo, demo-day stage, or a programme moment. This appears across the top of your public hub profile and in editorial features. Choose one image that, on its own, communicates the energy of your hub.
⬆
Drop your hero image here or click to browse
Recommended: 1920 × 1080 px (16:9) · Max 5 MB
PNGJPG
Ready to submit?
Once submitted, your responses are locked for this evaluation year. Profile fields (organisation name, contact details, programme descriptions, alumni list, profile media) remain editable from your dashboard. The 29 scoring questions, 9 service checks, and your alumni nominations are locked — though you can replace alumni if any decline to participate.
After submission: ZHAW researchers reach out to your 9 nominated alumni founders within 48h to begin the anonymous 15-question survey. Survey runs 4–6 weeks. Your final Selection Status is issued in October 2026.