The students – from Sion, Geneva, Lausanne, Fribourg and Yverdon – won the chance to participate in the two-day trip after taking part in Business Concept Training courses at their universities. The course helps participants transform an idea into a strong business project and is sponsored by Switzerland’s innovation agency, Innosuisse.

Organised with Enspire – the University of Oxford’s entrepreneurship hub – day one of the visit featured a jam-packed agenda: a session on the Embassy’s role in promoting Swiss start-ups; presentations on Oxford’s innovation eco-system – including the Creative Destruction Lab; lunch with Sarah Springman, Principal of the St Hilda's College, and students from the university’s Swiss Society; and a “Pitch @ the Pub” competition, won on the Swiss side by Fribourg’s Granulytics team and on the Oxford side by ToumAI.

Day two in London started at UCL’s incubator programme, BaseKX. This was followed by a meeting with the entrepreneurial Swiss brothers behind London social gaming venue Platform and finally a visit to EdTech accelerator DOHE.