Consortium

DEEP is a research consortium that aims to clarify the foundations, challenges, and consequences of the digital transformation for Swiss primary schools. The aim is to contribute to an equitable and sustainable digitalization in the early years of school education.

Seven universities work together in DEEP, reflecting the institutional, disciplinary, methodological, and regional diversity of Swiss educational research.

The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH) jointly run the DEEP Coordination Office. As a tandem, EPFL and PHZH are in charge of the strategic and operational alignment of DEEP.

DEEP is supported by the Jacobs Foundation. DEEP’s research and translational activities started in 2024 and are planned to run for a total of eight years. The DEEP consortium is part of Jacobs Foundation’s initiative Education in Digitality, together with the project Chance Digitality operated by staatslabor and ProEdu.

Partners

The DEEP consortium is a collective effort of the following seven Swiss universities.

EPFL
FHNW
PHSG
PHSZ
PHZH
UNIGE
UZH

Coordination Office

The DEEP Coordination Office coordinates and supports consortium partners and projects in their research and translational activities. The Coordination Office also organizes consortium events, takes care of reporting and monitoring, and ensures the operation of the consortium’s different bodies and boards. It collaborates closely with the Jacobs Foundation and with DEEP’s various practice partners, among others within the initiative “Education in Digitality”.

Dr. Jessica Dehler Zufferey

EPFL

Head of Coordination Office

Info

Since her PhD work on knowledge awareness in computer-supported collaborative learning at the Knowledge Media Research Center in Tübingen, Jessica continued to work on digital education, both in academia and industry. She was postdoctoral researcher at University of Fribourg, a teacher at the PHW business school in Bern and coordinated the Leading House Dual-T (Technologies for Vocational Training) at EPFL. For 4 years, she was pedagogical innovation lead in the EdTech startup Coorpacademy which is part of the Swiss EdTech Collider. Today, Jessica is working on the evidence-based evolution of education as executive director of the EPFL Center for Learning Sciences.

Prof. Dr. Kenneth Horvath

PHZH

Head of Coordination Office

Info

Ken is professor for educational sciences at the Zurich University of Teacher Education, a position he started after finishing his PhD in sociology at the University of Vienna and working as a postdoc at the PH Karlsruhe and the University of Lucerne. His research focuses on the problem of persistent educational inequalities, paying special attention to the role of teachers and also of digital technologies for alleviating or reinforcing patterns of disadvantaging.

Dr. Victoria Abou-Khalil

EPFL

Research and Translation Coordinator

Info

Victoria is a postdoctoral researcher at EPFL and the executive director of the EPFL – ETH Zurich Doctoral Program in the Learning Sciences. Her research focuses on the design and evaluation of digital education and technologies support diverse learners, including migrants and students in low-resource environments.

Victoria received her PhD from Kyoto University, where she studied as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Kyoto University while holding lecturer positions at Ritsumeikan University and the Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics. Prior to her role at EPFL, she was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Center for Project-Based Learning at ETH Zurich.

Dr. Lea Braun

PHZH

Research and Translation Coordinator

Info

After studying linguistics and communication sciences as well as migration and media education in Marburg and Cologne, Lea was a research assistant in the working group for media education and media didactics at the University of Cologne. From 2019-2024, she was project leader for digital learning media at Lehrmittelverlag Zürich (LMVZ), where she oversaw the digitalization of teaching materials for science subjects as well as for media and computer science. She was also responsible for the development of new teaching materials for English at primary level.

Frédérique Chessel-Lazzarotto

EPFL

Translation Coordinator

Info

After 16 years teaching at different levels of primary school in France, Frédérique became a generalist educational adviser and led digital projects in the classroom. She joined the EPFL Center Learn in 2018 to coordinate the piloting of the Canton of Vaud's digital education project. Since 2023, she coordinates the Center LEARN's projects in K-12 education.

Dr. Dominique Krebs-Oesch

PHZH

Research and Translation Coordinator

Info

After training as a primary school teacher at PH FHNW, Dominique immediately went on to study educational science at University of Zurich. Her PhD work focused on institutional permeability in structured education systems and educational inequalities. She has worked on major transition-related studies (TRANSITION (PHZH), TIDES (PH FHNW), TREE (UNIBE)) with a focus on the coordination of online questionnaires (survey management) and project communication. In the infrastructure project TREE, she also played a leading role in the digitisation of performance tests in survey settings and the publication of such data.

Dr. Konstantinos Michos

EPFL

Research and Translation Coordinator

Info

Kostas received his M.Sc in Educational Technology from the University of Saarland in Germany and his PhD in Information and Communication Technologies from Pompeu Fabra University in Spain. Prior to his studies abroad, Konstantinos received a teaching diploma as a primary school teacher from the University of Thessaly in Greece. He worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Insitute of Education, University of Zurich on projects related to a mobile portfolio app for teaching internships, teachers' data literacy and learning analytics for school teachers.

Executive Board

The Executive Board is in charge of the overarching strategic alignment of DEEP research and translational activities, ensuring adherence to the highest international standards of scientific and practical relevance and excellence.

Prof. Dr. Mireille Bétrancourt

Unige

Prof. Dr. Beat Döbeli Honegger

PHSZ

Dr. Jessica Dehler Zufferey

EPFL

Info

Since her PhD work on knowledge awareness in computer-supported collaborative learning at the Knowledge Media Research Center in Tübingen, Jessica continued to work on digital education, both in academia and industry. She was postdoctoral researcher at University of Fribourg, a teacher at the PHW business school in Bern and coordinated the Leading House Dual-T (Technologies for Vocational Training) at EPFL. For 4 years, she was pedagogical innovation lead in the EdTech startup Coorpacademy which is part of the Swiss EdTech Collider. Today, Jessica is working on the evidence-based evolution of education as executive director of the EPFL Center for Learning Sciences.

Prof. Dr. Kenneth Horvath

PHZH

Info

Ken is professor for educational sciences at the Zurich University of Teacher Education, a position he started after finishing his PhD in sociology at the University of Vienna and working as a postdoc at the PH Karlsruhe and the University of Lucerne. His research focuses on the problem of persistent educational inequalities, paying special attention to the role of teachers and also of digital technologies for alleviating or reinforcing patterns of disadvantaging.