The University of Lausanne is a higher teaching and research insitution composed of 7 faculties with c. 13,350 students and 2,800 researchers. The Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics was established in January 2014 to unite researchers within the Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment with an interest in surface processes. It has 12 permanent academic staff members, and over 50 PhD students, post docs and technical assistants. 2 particular research themes (of 4 in the institute) are of relevance to Alpflux: Geomorphology, Cryosphere and Mountains; and Geoscience and Spatial Modelling.

The Institute possesses: pico multi-beam echo-sounder; a 6km range Riegl laser scanner (first introduced by Riegl in 2013); three dGPS systems; a fully automated RTK positioned heli-drone (MD4-1000); three fully automated RTK positioned fixed wing drones (Sensefly Ebee-RTK); 5 GPS positioned heli-drones (Phantom professional); four total stations; a Sontek aDCP river surveyor; electromagnetic and propeller flow measurement systems; advanced grain size analysis systems; SEM; hydraulic modelling software and experience in its use (TUFLOW; DELFT3D, BASEMENT); ArcGIS, Pix4D (SfM), ERDAS, ENVI and Matlab Image Processing TB software. Access to supercomputing facilities (CADMOS).