Create your flagship to stimulate systemic innovation and transdisciplinary collaboration. This initiative seeks to find solutions to current or future challenges relevant to a large part of the economy or society.
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The purpose of the flagship initiative is to stimulate innovation in areas relevant to a large part of the economy or society and to promote transdisciplinary project collaboration. The Initiative strives for solutions to current or future challenges, which concern several actors and/or can only be solved through collaborative work. Innosuisse is therefore defining specific but broad flagship topics in order to encourage applicants to address issues that are of particular interest for the future well-being of the country, and where new solutions and business models are required. This new funding instrument is complementary to the purely bottom-up oriented and well-established regular innovation projects.
Systemic innovation, where value can only be derived if it is synergistically integrated with other complementary innovations, and transdisciplinarity, where actors from different disciplines collaborate, are key components of this new funding instrument.
The overall objective is to strengthen the competitiveness of the Swiss economy and/or contribute to the well-being of society by creating new value along the value chain by increasing efficiencies, reducing costs or re-solving social relevant challenges in the public interest.
The selection of topics follows a structured process. Find out more about this process in the following document:
You will find all relevant information and documents on the call for projects web page.
Innosuisse defines specific but broad flagship topics. Consortia can submit proposals to execute a flagship within these topics.
A consortium consists of at least three research partners, of which at least one is a UAS, and at least two implementation partners. In justified exceptional cases, two research partners are also possible.
1. Pre-proposal – submission, evaluation and recommendation
To submit a pre-proposal, Flagship partners must meet the following requirements.
NOTE: the submission of a pre-proposal is a mandatory requirement for the submission of a proposal.
Operate in Switzerland and engage in value-creating activities.
Cover the costs incurred within your company for the Flagship, which must at least correspond to 40 to 60% of the overall project cost.
Contribute at least 5% of the total project costs to your research partners’ expenses (cash contribution).
Have Swiss research partners who are willing to implement a Flagship with you.
Work at a Swiss research centre, and have companies who want to realize a Flagship with you as research partners.
Belong to one of the eligible categories of research institutions as follows:
Please note
Non-eligible research institutions outside the higher education sector under Article 5 RIPA must submit all required documents according to the information sheet on the requirements and criteria for non-commercial re-search centres outside the higher education sector, together with the pre-proposal. The partners must also respect the code of scientific integrity. Projects or activities that are contrary to scientific integrity or good scientific practice are not encouraged.
The members of the Innovation Council and Experts will review your application and rate it based on these criteria:
Innovation degree: Your Flagship project should demonstrate novelty in both, the scientific and the economic/societal domains. It should be a breakthrough that creates new value and opportunities. Your scientific and economic/societal approach should contribute to change a system in the long term.
Value creation and sustainability in Switzerland: The implementation of the research results should enhance the market competitiveness of your implementation partners and contribute to the social and economic well-being of the country by demonstrably reducing (social) costs and/or creating economic benefits (e.g. reducing poverty, increasing quality of life, improving quality of education, reducing inequity or increasing biodiversity).
Flagship setup:
Methodological quality: Your project structure demonstrates the goals and milestones, the roles and responsibilities, and the communication and collaboration mechanisms among the project partners.
Expertise of the flagship partners: Your Flagship consortium have the necessary expertise for the execution and the intended implementation on the market, and is structured transdisciplinary.
Cost-benefit ratio of the Flagship: Your Flagship project presents a quantitative analysis of the costs and benefits of your project.
Here is a calculation template for the financial plan. Please note that the calculation template does not have to be submitted and only serves as a tool for calculating the project costs.
First, the Innosuisse Secretariat checks your application for formal requirements, such as completeness and eligibility. If your application fulfils the formal requirements, it will be evaluated by a panel of experts from various disciplines and sectors who will assess the content of your application based on the evaluation criteria. Based on the expert assessment and recommendations, the Innovation Council of Innosuisse decides on whether or not to recommend the submission of a full proposal.
Innosuisse will inform you by e-mail whether it recommends the submission of a full proposal or not. However, applicants are not bound by this recommendation.
2. Proposal – submission, evaluation and decision
To submit a proposal, Flagship partners must meet the following requirements
NOTE: the submission of a pre-proposal is a mandatory requirement for the submission of a proposal.
Operate in Switzerland and engage in value-creating activities.
Cover the costs incurred within your company for the Flagship, which must at least correspond to 40 to 60% of the overall project cost.
Contribute at least 5% of the total project costs to your research partners’ expenses, known as “cash contribution”.
Have Swiss research partners who are willing to implement a Flagship with you.
Work at a Swiss research centre, and have companies who want to realize a Flagship with you as research partners.
Belong to one of the eligible categories of research institutions as follows:
The members of the Innovation Council and Experts will review your application and rate it based on these criteria:
Innovation degree: Your Flagship project should demonstrate novelty in both, the scientific and the economic/societal domains. It should be a breakthrough that creates new value and opportunities. Your scientific and economic/societal approach should contribute to change a system in the long term.
Value creation and sustainability in Switzerland: The implementation of the research results should enhance the market competitiveness of your implementation partners and contribute to the social and economic well-being of the country by demonstrably reducing (social) costs and/or creating economic benefits (e.g., reducing poverty, increasing quality of life, improving quality of education, reducing inequity or increasing biodiversity).
Flagship setup:
Methodological quality: Your project structure demonstrates the goals and milestones, the roles and responsibilities, and the communication and collaboration mechanisms among the project partners.
Expertise of the flagship partners: Your Flagship consortium have the necessary expertise for the execution and the intended implementation on the market, and is structured transdisciplinary.
Cost-benefit ratio of the Flagship: Your Flagship project presents a quantitative analysis of the costs and benefits of our project.
First, the Innosuisse Secretariat checks your application for formal requirements, such as completeness and eligibility. If your application fulfils the formal requirements, it will be evaluated by a panel of experts from various disciplines and sectors who will assess the content of your application based on the evaluation criteria. Based on the expert assessment and recommendations, the Innovation Council of Innosuisse decides on whether or not to fund your flagship.
Following the decision of the Innovation Council, Innosuisse will send an information letter by e-mail announcing the approval of your application.
Following the decision of the Innovation Council, Innosuisse will send the decision letter including the reasons for rejection of your application by e-mail. An appeal against the decision can be lodged with the Federal Administrative Court within 30 days.
3. Conclude contract and conduct flagship
The flagship partners must conclude a subsidy contract with Innosuisse. Innosuisse will send the subsidy contract by e-mail. Only after signing and returning the subsidy contract to Innosuisse you can start your flagship in accordance with the agreements in the subsidy contract.
NOTE: Please inform Innosuisse of the specific date of the start of the flagship by e-mail programme@innosuisse.ch.
The provisions of Art. 41 RIPO apply as a minimum. Innosuisse may stipulate that an agreement between the partners going beyond these provisions must be made. Where such a requirement exists, the agreement or only a signed copy of the IPR declaration must be submitted no later than six months after the start of the flagship.
NOTE: As these negotiations are important and can be complex, Innosuisse advises the flagship partners to deal with this issue at an early stage and to have already reached at least an agreement in principle on this issue by the beginning of the application process.
As a flagship partner, you must submit reports during your flagship. These give Innosuisse an insight into the course of the flagship. Important changes to your flagship must be requested.
NOTE: Please send all your reports and adjustment requests by e-mail to programme@innosuisse.ch.
The letter approving your application and the subsidy contract will specify the number of reports and their deadlines for your flagship.
The midterm review will take place no later than after half of the duration of the flagship. The mid-term review consists of an interim scientific and financial report and a review meeting. Depending on the length and volume of the flagship, additional evaluations can be defined.
The purpose of the evaluation is to check whether the status of the activities is in line with the planning and whether successful completion of the flagship is guaranteed.
You must report all important changes of your flagship to Innosuisse. This applies particularly to changes in terms of hours, personnel function or key personnel, as well as applications for redistribution of the flagship contribution or additional project funds.
If you do not complete your flagship within the anticipated time frame according to the planning, you can apply for an extension ahead of time without increasing the budget.
5. Complete the flagship
At the end of your flagship, you must send Innosuisse a final scientific report and the financial reports. These are used for quality assurance, financial auditing and impact measurement. All forms must be completed by the flagship partners and submitted to Innosuisse.
To enter the material costs, please note the document eligible material costs:
The platform Innolink is used to submit and manage applications to Innosuisse. Project partners and start-ups can submit new applications or edit existing ones, while Innosuisse members can access the projects and cases assigned to them.
Ongoing Flagships
Explore Flagship projects from the various project calls that are currently in progress.
