Despite the pandemic and the massive slump in the economy, applications for Innosuisse’s most important funding instrument, the national innovation projects, were in line with original expectations.

472 applications worth CHF 175.2 million (excluding overheads) were approved – an increase of 22% over the previous year. Almost 400 SMEs were supported by our mentors in the launch of innovation projects and other funding applications.

There was also a pleasing increase of around 45% to CHF 28.5 million in commitments for the international projects within the framework of EUREKA, ECSEL and AAL. With the launch of Horizon Europe 2021, delays in calls for proposals are expected, which led to innovation actors being particularly eager to take advantage of the opportunities offered in 2020.

At BRIDGE, the joint funding programme with the SNSF, the course was set for continuation in 2020 and the funding budget was increased by a total of 50% to CHF 105 million for the next four years. As part of the Discovery Projects, new projects from the social sciences and humanities are now also being funded. So far, 122 funded projects have emerged from the 16 calls for proof of concept projects. This has already resulted in 65 start-ups – a great success.

After eight years, the Energy funding programme came to an end in 2020. More than 1,300 researchers had been working at the SCCERs each year on average. They launched over 1,400 projects throughout the duration of the funding programme. The SCCERs have laid a good foundation for making a significant contribution to managing the 2050 energy transition.

Innosuisse realigned two funding instruments for the purposes of networking and knowledge transfer. Already 12 NTN – Innovation Boosters have been launched, which should result in more radical and disruptive innovation projects in important future fields. In addition, Innosuisse now supports a series of events on relevant innovation topics – Networking Event Series – which facilitate an active exchange between research institutions, business, and society at the national level.

Innosuisse has recorded a large increase in the number of participants in the training courses for founders. Module 1 “Business Ideas” in particular met with interest, being accessed over 3,100 times – mostly virtually. The significant increase in the proportion of women, which now stands at 43%, is also gratifying.

The total demand for coaching vouchers also increased by 5% compared with the previous year. A new record was set with 570 actively supported start-ups in the various coaching programmes. For the first time, 11 start-ups could benefit from Scale-up Coaching which launched in 2019 as a coaching programme for start-ups with high growth potential. Among other support options, it offers additional coaches with growth experience and specifically assigned to the programme, as well as support geared towards financing and activities relating to international commercialisation.

Facts and figures