Associate Memberships

This open call invites scholars to join the DEEP research community without requesting funding. Associate membership will be based on the applicant’s existing projects and outcomes on the thematic focus areas of DEEP. Click here to assess information about the associate membership call and submission template:

Information summary:

  • Eligibility:
    Membership requests can be submitted by researchers affiliated to a higher education institution (including the seven founding universities) who are engaged in projects on equitable and sustainable digitalization in the early years of Swiss school education.

  • Duration of the Associate Membership:
    The membership lasts until the end of 2027.

  • Opening Date for Submission: 15.1.2025

  • Closing Date for Submission: Ongoing (no time restriction).

Proposals should be submitted only in English.

Community Members & Associated Members

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.

Franziska Aeschlimann

PHSZ

PhD Student

Prof. Dr. Julia Arnold

PH FHNW

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Catherine Audrin

HEP Vaud

Co-Lead

Manuel Bernal Lecina

EPFL

PhD student

Prof. Dr. Ingo Bosse

HfH

Project Leader

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.

Dr. Josef Buchner

PHSG

Project Leader

Dr. Charlotte Báez

PHSG

Postdoc

Dr. Kerstin Bäuerlein

PH FHNW

Senior Researcher

Prof. Dr. Mireille Bétrancourt

Unige

Project Leader

Marina Capraro

HEP Vaud

Scientific Collaborator

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.

Prof. Dr. Johann Chevalère

LAPSCO

Scientific Advisory Board

Martina Conti

PHSG

PhD Student

Luca Crivelli

DECS

Expert Teacher

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. Pierre Dillenbourg

EPFL

Founding Chair of DEEP

Fatou-Maty Diouf

Unige

Developer

Gregory Dozot

HEIG‑VD

Technical Collaborator

Meryl Dubois

HEIG-VD

Technical Collaborator

Prof. Dr. Hanna Dumont

Universität Potsdam

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Prof. Dr. Beat Döbeli Honegger

PHSZ

Project Leader

Dr. Tino Armin Endres

UZH

Postdoc

Valentina Ferraioli

EPFL

PhD Student

Claudia Fischer

PH FHNW

Project Leader

Elena Franchini

SUPSI

Researcher

Olivia Furrer

PH FHNW

Collaborator

Dr. Marzia Garzetti

SUPSI

Researcher

Prof. Dr. Barbara Getto

PHZH

Project Leader

Dominik Glandorf

EPFL

PhD Student

Fabian Grünig

PHSG

Project Leader

Maria Görlich

PHZH

PhD Student

Prof. Dr. Christoph Gütersloh

PH FHNW

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Sigrid Hartong

Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg

Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Michael Hielscher

PHSZ

Project Leader

Federica Hofer

PHLU

Project Leader

Nina Hofer

PHSZ

Junior Researcher

Dr. Lena Hollenstein

PHSG

Project leader

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.

Camilla Illy

UZH

PhD Student

Anna Janka

PHZH

PhD

Franziska Keller

PH FHNW

Research Assistant

Prof. Dr. Michael Kickmeier-Rust

PHSG

Project Leader

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.

Prof. Dr. Tanja Käser

EPFL

Project Leader

Dr. Paolo Landri

Italian National Research Council

Scientific Advisory Board Member

Sanha Lee

UHZH

PhD Student

Maëlys Le Magadou

Unige

Scientific Collaborator

Dr. Marco Longhitano

PH FHNW

Researcher

Dr. Julien Mercier

HEIG‑VD

Postdoc, Co-Lead

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.

Nadin Ming

PHLU

Administrative Collaborator

Prof. Dr. Gaëlle Molinari

Unige

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Francesco Mondada

EPFL

Project leader

Prof. Dr. Zoe Moody

UNIL

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Lucio Negrini

SUPSI

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Daniela Nussbaumer

HfH

Project Leader

Franziska Oberholzer

PH FHNW

Research Assistant

Prof. Dr. Angela Pasqualotto

SUPSI

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Doreen Prasse

PHSZ

Project Leader

Prof. Regula Pöhl

PHSG

Associate Member

Info

Regula Pöhl is a lecturer in technical design at the Institute for Cultural and Aesthetic Education at the University of Teacher Education St.Gallen (PHSG) and a visual artist.
Her areas of focus include designing as a practical mode of cultural education, the refiguration of spaces, education in the culture of the built environment, and the consolidation of pathways between theory and practice in teacher education. Together with Jérôme Zgraggen, she developed the tool “Inquiry-Based Learning and Designing” (FLuG - Forschend Lernen und Gestalten) at PHSG. Designing is examined as an underestimated cultural technique in education and proposed as a strategy for transformative processes.

Prof. Dr. Annelies Raes

KU Leuven

Scientific Advisory Board

Laura Rusconi

SUPSI

Researcher

Prof. Dr. Tobias Röhl

PHZH

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Eric Sanchez

Unige

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Silvia Sbaragli

SUPSI

Project Leader

Céline Scheier

PHSZ

Junior Researcher

Tobias M. Schifferle

PHZH

Researcher

Christa Schmid-Meier

HfH

Associate Member

Prof. Dr. Sascha Schneider

UZH

Project Leader

Fabienne Senn

PH FHNW

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Leonie Sibley

PHZH

Researcher

Prof. Dr. Robbert Smit

PHSG

Project Leader

Dominic Studer

PH FHNW

Researcher

Prof. Dr. Afra Sturm

PH FHNW

Project Leader

Alain Sénécail

Unige

Postdoc

Dr. Livia Tavernese Radici

SUPSI

Scientific Collaborator

Cristina Tulea

UZH

PhD student

Dr. Valentin Unger

PHSG

Project Leader

Daria Venzin

PHLU

Administrative Collaborator

Dr. Sonia Vermeulen Steyaert

UNIL

Postdoc

Prof. Dr. Franziska Vogt

PHSG

Project leader

Marius Vogt

PHSG

PhD student

Verena Wahl

HfH

Researcher

Clemens Waibel

PHSG

Researcher

Prof. Dr. Esther Wiesner

PH FHNW

Project Leader

Dr. Stefanie Wyss

PHLU

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Raphael Zahnd

PH FHNW

Project Leader

Prof. Jérôme Zgraggen

PHSG

Associate Member

Info

Jérôme Zgraggen is a lecturer in technical and digital design at the University of Teacher Education St.Gallen (PHSG) and co-editor-in-chief of the specialist journal Werkspuren. He heads the research and development unit at the Institute for Cultural and Aesthetic Education at PHSG. His areas of focus are design pedagogy and digital design, with a particular interest in the act of designing itself. He pursues this topic in his doctoral dissertation and, together with Regula Pöhl, developed the tool “Inquiry-Based Learning and Designing” (FLuG - Forschend Lernen und Gestalten) at PHSG. Designing is examined as an underestimated cultural technique within education and proposed as a strategy for transformative processes.

Sarah Zöchling

UZH

Postdoc