Innosuisse Flagship

Innosuisse has released a new funding program, the Flagship Initiative, and announced the first call for proposals in January 2021, with deadlines on 31 March for pre-proposal and 13 August for full-proposal. On this page we inform you of the general aims and goals of the initiative. For more detailed information regarding the application process, please download the infosheet.

Aim of the Flagship Initiative

The aim of this initiative is to stimulate innovation in areas particularly relevant to the economy or society by promoting transdisciplinary project collaboration. Within these projects, solutions are offered to challenges that can only be solved through collaborative work.

Within this funding opportunity specific flagship topics will be defined, addressing issues for the future well-being of Switzerland, required new solutions and business models. The overall goal is to strengthen the Swiss economy and contribute to the society. A key component of these projects is systemic innovation; achieving value and solutions with a complementary and transdisciplinary approach to innovation.

The flagship initiative will finance multiple flagships under the different topic areas. Each flagship will be executed by a consortium consisting of several industry and research partners, the flagship itself consists of multiple interdependent and interrelated subprojects.

Topics for first call

The two topics for the first call for proposals focus on the effect of COVID-19 on the economy and society.

1. Coping with COVID-19 induced acceleration of digital transformation

This flagship topic aims to bring research and implementation partners together to tackle the challenges of accelerated digital transformation. Changes in human needs, human behaviour and lifestyle and structural changes in society require innovation and digital transformation in multiple areas.

The proposals within this topic must concentrate on one of the following focus areas:

• Education, learning and teaching
• Tourism and travel industry
• Real estate and urban planning
• Healthcare and medical technology

2. Improving resilience and sustainability and reducing vulnerability of society, infrastructure and processes

This flagship topic aims to mitigate and control risks and to improve resilience and sustainability of society, infrastructure and processes.

Climate change, natural hazards, man-made risks and demographic shifts are affecting society, economy and infrastructure. Highly innovative solutions and new approaches are required in order to create a more sustainable and resilient world.

The proposals within this topic must concentrate on one of the following focus areas:

• Demographic shift
• Supply chains
• Resilience of ICT infrastructures
• Decarbonization

Discover more Swiss calls or visit the Innosuisse website.