Launching phase two of EPFL's Valais expansion

The Canton of Valais, the City of Sion and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) held their annual strategy committee meeting on Wednesday, 30 August. Building on the achievements of the EPFL Valais Wallis campus over the past three years, the parties have officially launched the second phase of EPFL's Valais expansion. At the committee meeting, the Canton of Valais and EPFL signed the second amendment to the 19 December 2012 agreement on the creation of the EPFL Valais Wallis campus, thereby formalizing the agreement in principle reached in December 2016. A new EPFL building that will host a research center on alpine and extreme environments will be constructed on the Energypolis campus in Sion. The rehabilitation and health cluster and the green chemistry and energies-of-the-future hub will also be strengthened. EPFL and the Canton of Valais formalized the launch of the second phase of EPFL's expansion in Valais, as set out in the December 2016 agreement in principle, by signing a second amendment to the agreement of 19 December 2012. The amendment was signed at the 2017 strategy committee meeting attended by the entire Valais Council of State, EPFL's president and senior management, and the mayor of the City of Sion.