Frequently Asked Questions

Creating and using an account is free for faculty. Universities can work with Studyond under institutional agreements, depending on scope, visibility, and integration needs. Contact us at hello@studyond.com.

Register with your official university email address and complete the standard verification process. Once verified, you can immediately publish topics and interact with companies and students.

Faculty and researchers can publish an unlimited number of research and thesis topics, with no restrictions or quotas.

Yes. Faculty and researchers can invite existing academic and industry partners to collaborate on Studyond, enabling structured engagement within an established network.

Yes. Faculty and researchers receive real-time notifications when companies publish topics that match their research interests. Notification settings can be enabled or disabled at any time.

Yes. Studyond is completely free for researchers and faculty. No subscription, hidden fees, or budget request is required.

You retain full control over methodology, analysis, and publication rights. Companies provide the research question and access to data; academic supervision remains under your authority.

Companies on Studyond post concrete research problems, not generic job listings. You can filter by domain, keyword, and industry to find partners working on problems in your field. If there are no matches today, create a researcher profile and let companies with relevant challenges find you.

No. Researchers and faculty register individually with their institutional email address. No procurement process, IT integration, or institutional approval is required.

Studyond is a quality-assured platform that connects students, universities, and companies for guest lectures, applied projects, theses, internships, interview partners, entry-level positions, and many other use cases.

The Studyond platform grew out of an Innosuisse research project initiated by ETH Zurich, the University of St. Gallen (HSG), and Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST). The Swiss Employers' Association and economiesuisse took part as implementation partners. Today, Studyond is an official HSG Spin-Off and ETH Startup. In 2026, it was accepted into the MITdesignX Startup Accelerator Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The entire Studyond platform is developed and operated in Switzerland. All development work is carried out by teams in Switzerland; no development is outsourced abroad. This enables us to maintain the highest standards of data protection, security, and software quality.

Yes. studyond complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Swiss Data Protection Act (DPA). Personal data is processed transparently and in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

All data is stored in AWS data centers located in Frankfurt, Germany, ensuring data residency within the European Union.

We use industry-standard security, including encryption and secure communication protocols. The database is isolated in a private cloud network.

Yes. Users may delete their account and personal data at any time via their profile settings or by contacting privacy@studyond.com. Deletion requests are handled in line with legal and regulatory obligations.

Authentication is provided by Clerk, an enterprise-grade identity provider. Secure tokens manage authenticated communication between platform services.

If a data breach occurs, Studyond will notify affected users and relevant authorities within 72 hours, in accordance with applicable regulations.

Studyond is currently web-based. The platform's architecture is designed to support future mobile applications if required in the future.

Updates are deployed continuously to the cloud, typically without service interruption, ensuring users always have access to the latest features and improvements.

Yes. Studyond is cloud-native and uses automated scaling mechanisms to adjust system resources based on usage and demand.

Cloud-native backup and recovery solutions are used to regularly back up data and support restoration in the event of a system failure.

Yes. Studyond uses AI-supported systems to improve matching between students, supervisors, and companies, for example by recommending relevant topics, profiles, or collaborations based on interests, skills, and context.

AI on Studyond is decision-supporting, not decision-making. Final decisions, such as selecting a student, approving a topic, or initiating a collaboration, are always made by humans.

No. AI does not automatically accept, reject, or rank individuals in a binding way. It provides recommendations and structured suggestions to support users in navigating large volumes of information.

Studyond is committed to transparency. AI-supported recommendations are based on clearly defined inputs such as profile data, stated interests, and skills. Users remain in control and can always review, ignore, or override AI suggestions.

No personal data is used to train general-purpose AI models. Where AI components rely on learning mechanisms, they are restricted to platform-internal optimization and operate on anonymized or aggregated data where possible.

Studyond is designed to align with the principles of the EU AI Act and Swiss regulatory frameworks. The platform's AI features are classified as low-risk, support-oriented systems and follow core principles such as human oversight, transparency, data minimization, and non-discrimination.

Studyond actively monitors AI-supported features for unintended bias. Matching logic is based on academic relevance, skills, and declared interests, not on sensitive personal attributes. AI outputs are regularly reviewed and adjusted where needed.

Yes. Where AI-supported recommendations are offered, users can choose not to rely on them and instead browse or search manually using filters and structured listings.

AI governance is handled internally by Studyond AG. All AI-related features are reviewed from a legal, ethical, and technical perspective before deployment, with a strong emphasis on responsibility, accountability, and user trust.