Published on 26 October 2023

Innovation cheques stimulate the innovation potential of SMEs and start-ups

The Innosuisse innovation cheque is an important tool for SMEs and start-ups to strengthen their innovation potential and reduce innovation risks. It also supports the growth and performance of innovative companies. More than three quarters of innovation ideas continue to be pursued upon completion of the preliminary study. These are the results of a survey conducted by INFRAS as part of Innosuisse’s impact monitoring.

For the first time, Innosuisse has commissioned an impact study to assess the impact of the innovation cheque. Those surveyed comprised all SMEs and organisations that were awarded an innovation cheque between 2019 and mid-2022. From among the 1,540 organisations, 537 responded.

The results show that the innovation cheque makes a significant contribution towards Innosuisse’s impact goals:

Results

• Risky innovations are made possible that would not otherwise come about:

  • Upon completion of the innovation cheque, 77% of innovation ideas are developed further by the SMEs and start-ups.
  • Around one quarter of innovation cheques (26%) lead to an Innosuisse standard innovation project at a later stage.
  • Two thirds of innovation ideas would not have been pursued at all, or only in a greatly reduced form, a further 19% would have been pursued to a somewhat lesser extent, and 8% of innovation ideas would have been pursued in an unchanged form even without funding from Innosuisse.

• Knowledge and technology transfer between research and industry is accelerated:

  • 53% of organisations worked with a research partner for the first time.
  • The vast majority (87%) of respondents rated the research partner’s performance as good (26%) or very good (61%).
  • 70% of respondents will continue to work with the research partner or plan to do so.

• The growth and performance of SMEs is strengthened:

  • 75% of the organisations have increased their technological maturity by an average of almost two levels thanks to the innovation cheque.
  • 68% of the organisations surveyed achieved (57%) or even exceeded (11%) the goals set out with the innovation cheque. Only 7% clearly did not achieve their goal.

• More start-ups and faster growth of start-ups:

  • 56% of organisations participating in the innovation cheque are young companies (less than 10 years old), usually start-ups.

• Innovation activities in future key issues are stimulated:

  • 72% of innovations have the potential to make a significant contribution towards social and/or environmental sustainability. 54% of innovations are able to make a rather strong to very strong contribution to environmental sustainability, and 41% to social sustainability.
  • 49% of innovation cheques deal with digital solutions. This number has been on the rise since 2019

---

You can find all the results of the study in the report "Impact of the Innosuisse Innovation Check" (in German). Everything on impact monitoring is summarised in the online dossier.

---

The Innosuisse innovation cheque

---