Using our travel assistance program

Current EPFL employees who travel abroad for EPFL-related purposes can sign up for the program.

The program does not cover personal travel.

EPFL students who travel for one of the following reasons can sign up for the program: 

Educational trips

• Exchange programs
• Master’s projects conducted outside Switzerland
• Mandatory internships conducted outside Switzerland

The program does not cover personal travel.

However, a short personal trip tacked onto the end of a business or educational trip may be covered.

Guest lecturers and visiting professors who do not have an EPFL employment contract are generally not eligible for the travel assistance program.

If you make your travel reservation through the EPFL travel agency, you will automatically be entered in our travel assistance program. You do not need to do anything else. The travel agents will be happy to answer any questions you have and help you plan your trip.

For more information about the services available under our travel assistance program, visit our International SOS webpage.

For those of you who decide to make your own travel reservations, you will have to create a MyTrips account and enter your trip information manually if you want EPFL and our travel assistance provider, International SOS, to be able to find and help you in the event of an emergency.

For more information about the services available under our travel assistance program, visit our International SOS webpage.

You will need to create a MyTrips account and enter your trip information manually if you want EPFL and our travel assistance provider, International SOS, to be able to find and help you in the event of an emergency.

For more information about the services available under our travel assistance program, visit our International SOS webpage.

The trip coordinator should use our online form to enter the trip information for all travelers.

Once the form has been submitted, the coordinator will receive a MyTrips user guide and login information for the Manual Trip Entry interface. The coordinator can then enter the trip information to have the trip covered by our travel assistance program. 

For more information about the services available under our travel assistance program, visit our International SOS webpage.

If you are traveling to a “high-risk” country according to our travel risk map (risk level 4 or 5), you can request a personalized assessment from us, so that you can learn what precautions you should take.

PhD students are considered EPFL employees and should check the “EPFL employee” box when they register.

For travelers who do not want to enter their information into MyTrips manually, our travel assistance provider offers a system called Forward.

However, to use this system, you will still need to create a MyTrips account. See Creating a MyTrips account and entering your trip information for more information on how to do this.

Once you’ve created an account, you can simply forward your travel confirmation emails to the following address to have the information entered in our database: [email protected]

Once your employment contract or degree program ends, you will no longer be eligible for our travel assistance program. You must return your International SOS membership card to the EPFL Security at:

EPFL VPO-SE

Station 4

No. Services provided by International SOS (such as the information and advice provided through its website, smartphone app and hotline) are free of charge for EPFL staff and students.

However, the services coordinated by International SOS – including doctor’s visits, hospital stays and repatriation – will be at your expense. We suggest you contact your insurance company to find out what travel coverage you already have.

No. It consists only of assistance for travelers at every step of their trip: from researching destinations and making reservations to handling emergencies while abroad. These services are designed to give you important information about the health and safety risks you may face in your country of destination, which you can learn about through the International SOS website and smartphone app. You can also contact International SOS if you have a health problem while traveling, or in the event of political unrest or a natural disaster. Their experts will advise you and, if necessary, make emergency arrangements.

Yes. Medical costs in some countries (like the US and Japan) can be substantially higher than in Switzerland, and some insurance companies therefore don’t cover 100% of the costs incurred in these countries.

The person traveling or another person from EPFL can make download the membership card online.

Depending on your country of destination – and more specifically, the health and safety risks in that country – you may receive a “Pre-Trip Advisory” email. Be sure to check your spam folder because this message could be classified as spam by your messaging system. If you use Outlook, you can whitelist these messages using the procedure given in the guidelines (Outlook Setup.pdf) available on our website (see “What to do next” above).