New education campus in Heilbronn: ETH expands into Germany thanks to donation from Lidl founder

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ETH Zurich is expanding into Germany. Agreed on cooperation with the foundation of Lidl founder Dieter Schwarz. The plan is to build a new teaching and research center in Heilbronn, the hometown of Lidl’s founder.

The advertising slogan of the German discount chain “Lidl is worth it” now also applies to ETH. As ETH President Joël Mesot (59) said at a media conference on Friday, around 20 new professorships will be created in Zurich and at the new Heilbronn educational campus over the next 30 years, thanks to donations from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation (DSS).

Switzerland should benefit from international network

The new professorships will focus on artificial intelligence and the circular economy, among other aspects of digital transformation. As a first step, two new professorships in computer science and data science will be established in Zurich.

Five more professorships will be established in Heilbronn next year. According to Mesot, the first courses will be held in 2025. Those responsible agreed that more than half of the total 20 professorships should be located in Heilbronn.

There are already branches of the Technical University of Munich and the Fraunhofer Society on this campus. There are partnerships with other well-known international universities such as Oxford and Stanford universities. There are currently approximately 7,500 students on campus. According to Mesot, Switzerland should also benefit from the international network in Heilbronn.

This is Dieter Schwarz, founder of Lidl

Managing director Reinhold Geilsdörfer said that the foundation did not want to disclose the exact amount that DSS provided to ETH. Numbers are usually not transmitted at the request of the founder. After the ETH Center in Singapore, the location in Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg will be ETH’s second branch abroad.

Lidl founder Dieter Schwarz (84) is considered the richest person in Germany in 2023, with an estimated fortune of US$39.2 billion (34.4 billion francs), according to Forbes.

The Schwarz Group includes, among others, the Lidl and Kaufland retail chains. According to its own information, the group of companies employs around 600,000 people worldwide and generates sales of around 160 billion. (SDA)

Source : Blick