The Sustainability Portal reveals the breadth of the local network

Michaël Aklin & Nicolas Tétreault © Alain Herzog 2023 EPFL Under a joint UNIL-EPFL-IMD initiative coordinated by the Enterprise for Society (E4S) and CLIMACT centers, a new online directory shows over 330 experts performing innovative, sustainability-oriented R&D within the three schools. "We sometimes overestimate how familiar researchers are with the R&D ecosystem right in their own backyard," says Michaël Aklin, an EPFL associate professor and one of the managing directors at E4S. "It takes a lot of time and energy to find partners who are conducting R&D that could be of interest, with the potential for leveraging synergies and complementary skillsets. That's where our Sustainability Portal comes in - by doing the legwork for them, we can help experts team up on new, ambitious projects." This online directory was developed with the support of the University of Lausanne's Competence Centre in Sustainability and EPFL's Vice Presidencies for Academic Affairs and Responsible Transformation. Aklin, who came to EPFL recently and holds the Chair of Policy & Sustainability at the College of Management of Technology, sees real value in this kind of pragmatic endeavor. The University of Lausanne-IMD-EPFL Sustainability Portal is an important public good. Michaël Aklin, managing co-director at E4S Work began in 2022 and the public version was released on 12 September 2023.