The Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse offers innovation funding and carries out innovation initiatives, networking, training, and coaching, to foster the partnership between academia and the market, paving the way for successful Swiss startups and the development of cutting-edge products and services from SMEs and other disruptive organisations.
What is Innosuisse?
Innosuisse is the Swiss agency for innovation promotion. Innosuisse supports SMEs, startups, research institutions and other Swiss organizations in their research and development activities. Innosuisse is a springboard for innovation at national or international level. It facilitates collaboration and knowledge transfer to develop promising new products or services.
Innosuisse is a federal entity under public law with a separate legal personality. It provides support in accordance with the subsidiarity principle: it only supports projects if the innovation could not be implemented and market potential would not be tapped into without funding.
Innosuisse offers many different funding options.
- Funding for national projects,
- Funding for international projects,
- Project set-up assistance and networking,
- Support for startups.
What are the Startup Innovation Projects (SIP)?
Innosuisse offers many different funding options, and within the funding for national projects there is the SIP.
For the SIP, Innosuisse supports science-based projects of startups with significant innovation potential. These innovation projects must be based on application-oriented research and prepare start-ups for entering the market for the first time. In the case of projects, only the startup is supported.
No research partners are supported. Funding is available for projects in all subject areas.
Who can apply for the Innosuisse SIP?
For Startup Innovation Projects, Innosuisse supports innovation projects carried out by startups prior to entering the market. These innovation projects must be based on application-oriented research and prepare start-ups for entering the market for the first time. The goal is to significantly accelerate the market launch of new products and services. The applicant startup receives direct funding from Innosuisse.
Fields of application of the Innosuisse SIP
Startups must submit their applications to one of these five thematic groups:
- ICT,
- Social Sciences & Business Management,
- Life sciences,
- Engineering,
- Energy & Environment.
Funding conditions of the Innosuisse SIP
Innosuisse directly funds Swiss startups, covering up to 70% of direct project costs. Startups must contribute at least 30% of the costs themselves, and they must be able to convincingly demonstrate its capability to fully fund its contribution.
Eligible costs are personnel and material costs which are directly related to the project.
What are the evaluation criteria?
Excellence is evaluated according to eight criteria:
- Level of innovation,
- Added value in Switzerland,
- Financial performance of the startup,
- Cost-benefit ratio,
- Methodological quality,
- Intellectual property,
- Sustainability,
- Staff expertise.
Contact our funding expert
If you want to get access to our funding expert support and advice, fill in our Funding Assessment Form.
To know more about Innosuisse SIP
This guide provides an overview of Innosuisse’s new SIP (Startup Innovation Projects) funding programme as a starting point for startups willing to apply for the Innosuisse’s SIP programme. Innosuisse SIP offers a very attractive funding programme for the pre-commercialization phase of science-based startups. Our guide presents general information about the programme, its requirements, evaluation criteria and how the application process works.
If you want to know more about the application process for the Innosuisse SIP and access Strata’s unique advice and offering, download our guide:
