Ongoing Flagships

The aim of the Circulus project is to transform the Swiss machinery, electrical engineering and metals (MEM) industry across companies into a circular system in which every waste product becomes an input for the next life cycle. This means that no material extracted from nature is lost after the product’s utilisation phase; instead, everything is reused for either the same purpose or a different one. Care is taken to ensure that the products and their components become circular in line with economic and environmental sustainability goals. Ultimately, the aim is to support the entire MEM industry in its transformation into a net zero industry. This is for the benefit of our planet, our people and the long-term sustainability of our companies.

In a context marked both by the need to save available land and by the urgency of the ecological transition, the SwissRenov project is pursuing two complementary objectives: to devise a method for developing brownfield sites that respects the principles of the circular economy in terms of construction, and to economically develop all the brownfield sites in the canton of Jura.
The first objective is based on a partnership with the owners of three major brownfield sites in the Jura. The second objective is to draw up an inventory of brownfield sites, identify the obstacles to their economic development, understand what is needed in terms of real estate and land resources, and then design interfaces to facilitate the matching of supply and demand for space.

Energy storage is critical to transitioning to 100% electricity production from renewables. Energy storage use cases are diverse and depend on the operators, who will invest in them according to their needs and business models. Although energy storage might develop spontaneously, there is no guarantee that spontaneous development will be functional to achieve 100% renewable production. For example, batteries alone might not provide sufficient storage capacity to offset seasonal renewable variations, power-to-gas might not offer enough ramping for fast grid balancing, and poorly located energy storage might not support photovoltaic integration in distribution grids. STORE reviews the mainstream energy storage use cases and provides operators with the tools to plan and operate storage resources. In its systemic approach spirit, STORE explores how these use cases will contribute to an energy storage infrastructure to achieve 100% renewable production and supply security in Switzerland.

The Innosuisse Flagship project ‘Regenerative Construction «Think Earth»’ is expanding traditional building techniques and experience with wood and earth-based materials in a resource-saving and circular way. The project is presented in three major stages, incorporating ten dependent sub-projects working across a broad range of scales: from material science and processes to full-scale structural engineering prototypes and architectural case studies and standards.
The combination of wood and earth as complementary building materials (1+1=3), in conjunction with efficient and scalable construction methods, promises to make a significant contribution to climate-neutral and living., regenerative building.

The GreenHub project aims to demonstrate how Switzerland’s energy self-sufficiency can be increased. This is to be achieved through the intelligent use of synergies between different technologies, such as the conversion of locally generated heat, CO2 and electricity into chemically storable energy sources. The objective is to close the winter electricity gap of 9 TWh and thus maintain a robust year-round energy supply for Switzerland. This is being demonstrated at regional level through the establishment of a Green Energy Hub.
The Horgen waste incineration plant serves as a real laboratory and is substantially involved in the project as an implementation partner. A significant part of the research results from the four-year project will be tested in Horgen using prototypes in real operation and examined for their scalability for other waste recycling and industrial plants. During the duration of the project, guided tours will also be offered on site to give interested members of the public an insight into the research results and the potential of Green Energy Hubs for a sustainable energy supply.

The substitution of fossil fuels with renewable energies requires a massive expansion of seasonal energy storage. Seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) can make an important contribution here. So far, its potential has been overlooked, although it could make a significant contribution to reducing dependence on fossil fuel imports, maximizing the integration of renewable energies and waste heat, reducing peak demand and closing the electricity gap in winter. The SwissSTES flagship project addresses this by holistically exploring STES opportunities such as cavities, aquifers and underground reservoirs. It offers new technologies and an action and implementation plan for Switzerland and brings together stakeholders to establish STES as a sustainable and scalable concept. IN collaboration with industry, it develops new products, business ecosystems, legal framework and sociopolitical measures. Regional case studies pave the way for nationwide pilot and demonstration projects.

SWIRCULAR is conducted by a consortium of Swiss research institutions and industry partners, united by a common goal: to reshape the Swiss construction industry through the adoption of circular practices. The consortium represents a wide range of expertise and covers all life cycle phases, ensuring that circular construction innovations are effectively developed for successful implementation.
The structure of the project is a response to the pressing need for a coordinated and standardized transition towards a circular economy in the construction sector, tailored specifically to the Swiss context. SWIRCULAR operates as eight interconnected subprojects, redefining traditional disciplinary boundaries. It bridges diverse fields across the construction value chain, including engineering, law, architecture, and manufacturing, with the aim to fundamentally rethink current practices and introduce new circular approaches on a large scale. This framework enhances collaboration, interoperability, and overall efficiency as key factors for systemic change.
SWIRCULAR is an effective solution proposed to address high risks, costs, fragmentation among stakeholders, and project complexities that are curr10ently hindering the transition.

Plastic revolution made in Switzerland! The flagship project "Towards a NetZero Plastics Industry" mobilizes leading research institutions and industry partners to radically reduce CO2 emissions and establish an efficient circular economy for plastics. To achieve this goal, the research focuses on improving materials and processes, increasing the reuse and recycling of plastics, and promoting cooperation among various value chain actors. The initiative makes a significant contribution to the advancement of the Swiss industry and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations, especially in areas of responsible production and consumption (SDG 12) and climate action (SDG 13). "Towards a NetZero Plastics Industry" demonstrates Switzerland's commitment to a sustainable future and sets new benchmarks for the global plastics industry.

Advanced geothermal systems have the potential to make the Swiss energy system more resilient by providing decarbonised and decentralised domestic heating and electrical power. This helps consolidate an increasingly solar and wind-based Swiss energy supply system, improving its resilience. While the Flagship focuses on developing novel and advanced geothermal systems, it also considers techno-economic, environmental, societal and life-cycle-assessment aspects of all primary energy sources, thus leading to geothermal systems development, energy policy recommendations for Switzerland and new energy business models.

Hands-on training on patients is no longer compatible with today’s requirements and technical possibilities. Most training of this kind had to be discontinued during the pandemic, leading to an almost complete interruption of surgical education. In this Flagship, novel surgical training curricula are defined and innovative training components ranging from online simulation, augmented box trainers and high-end simulators, to augmented reality-enabled open surgery and immersive remote operation room participation, will be developed in order to set new standards both in Switzerland and abroad.

Decarbonisation of cities and regions is one challenge that needs to be addressed in order to achieve the Net Zero Target by 2050. In an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary setting, the Flagship DeCIRRA addresses the following questions: How might we decarbonise cities and regions? How might we make best use of local resources and existing infrastructure? What role can energy distributors and renewable gases play in the transition towards an energy system without net emissions of CO2?
DeCIRRA is a platform bringing together practitioners from many sectors and will focus on critical aspects of sector coupling and relevant options of the production of renewables gases, including Power-to-Gas. Different Carbon Capture and Storage and biological negative emission options will be compared, as they are necessary for achieving the Net Zero Target.

Communication is an essential requirement for social participation. Digital transformation and the pandemic have increased the digital divide with respect to access to information and communication for persons with disabilities. The aim of this Flagship is to develop ICT that provide access services for these target groups. The Flagship radically changes the production workflows: a human-assisted machine scenario is followed for processes that have hitherto been human-based, and semi-automatic processes are fully automated. It targets text simplification, sign language translation, sign language assessment, audio description and spoken subtitles.

Buildings are a major source of Switzerland’s CO2 emissions. The existing stock will represent the overwhelming part of the sectorial energy demand for several decades to come. The challenges presented by large-scale and efficient retrofits are numerous, interrelated and transdisciplinary. The RENOWAVE Flagship addresses building retrofit in a process of co-construction between researchers from various fields and implementation partners representing the various stakeholders involved in the complex process chain of renovation.

Tourism is a global phenomenon: the pandemic hit the sector very hard in Switzerland. The pandemic accelerated the inevitable digital transformation that the sector would have to face in order to optimise local supply offerings and international demand allocation. This Flagship has been designed to proactively respond to the challenges of digital transformation by empowering the travel sector in general with reliable data, new business models, processes and experience as well as tools for designing resilient tourism systems, while fostering the cross-fertilisation of communities of practice.

The pandemic has revealed more than just the need for digital transformation in the health sector in Switzerland. A multitude of technological solutions is coming up against inconsistent data silos, lack of responsibility and inefficient organisations. Using hospitals as an example, this Flagship demonstrates how digital transformation can be implemented with industry partners based on a novel technology, data and knowledge platform. The Flagship aims to use this platform to create a blueprint for the digitalisation of healthcare as a whole.

Cities suffer from too much traffic, leading to air and noise pollution. The increased popularity of e-commerce is intensifying these challenges. The Flagship aims to develop a future urban logistics concept that is sustainable, resilient and city-friendly. It also reduces the need for freight traffic in cities, focusing on deliveries and returns for parcels and other goods while increasing the quality of life for city residents. The Flagship introduces a “co-opetitive” approach, in which competitors naturally cooperate in a smart urban multihub and deliver with a white-label approach. This increases logistics efficiency through the bundling of activities, while reducing costs, vehicle kilometres and CO2 emissions.

This Flagship addresses the feasibility and the enhancement of a circular economy for electric vehicle batteries. Numerous innovations and transdisciplinary collaborations in the different life stages of the batteries need to be developed and implemented to close such a loop. This includes the extension of use in first life applications with better battery life prediction models and removing the barriers to second life usage of EV batteries. The Flagship also addresses the improvement of economic and technical performance of battery recycling, remanufacturing technologies and upcycling, and assesses the viability of recycled materials in the battery cell production process and the sustainability of this process.

While automation continues and skills gaps are growing, value creation in vocational education is increasingly happening outside Switzerland. The Flagship’s vision is therefore a circular economy for skills and competencies. The initiative will enable individuals to obtain fair access to upskilling and reskilling courses and to develop future-proof competence portfolios, give companies a platform to identify and close skills gaps, and provide education providers with sustainable training design concepts and a new course creation access.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed not only the vulnerability of society to infections, but also its capacity to respond. The SwissPandemic AMR-Health Economy Awareness Detect Flagship will leverage lessons learned to address the steadily worsening, silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with potentially 10 million deaths per year globally by 2050. The Flagship will assess and use machine learning and artificial intelligence for risk analysis and stratification, together with optimised, timely diagnostics and reporting, as well as increased, direct citizen involvement to improve cost-effective responses to AMR in a wide range of clinical settings. Optimal practices will result in greater systemic resilience to emerging infections.

Cities are home to most of the world’s population and major contributors of pollution-related issues to the climate crisis. The Blue City Project is a transdisciplinary consortium aiming to map a city’s multi-layered, interconnected flows and design a responsive, urban “Digital Twin”. Integrating artificial intelligence with data-rich representations, this open platform will assist citizens with evidence-based, collective decisions to improve urban wellbeing, sustainability, resilience, and ecological value. Such a platform could revolutionise industry along the value chains of real estate, design and city management.

Addressing the challenges arising from the increasing prevalence of neurological disorders in an ageing society, the Flagship SWISSNEUROREHAB will develop and validate an effective and efficient model for neurorehabilitation along the continuum of care. This model will specify the clinical, operational and economic needs for the treatment of sensorimotor and cognitive deficits after stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. Therapeutic programmes, leveraged by digital therapies, will be validated and incorporated into the clinical routine by Swiss centres of excellence. An intercantonal economic model will validate the reimbursement of the new model within the Swiss healthcare system and estimate the return on investment for healthcare providers and medtech companies.

The WISER Flagship proposes a systemic innovation for Switzerland: to become a world leader in environmental accounting. Building on transparency and accountability, as well as Swiss strengths in research excellence, a digital ecosystem will be created in which public and private stakeholders can contribute and share knowledge about greenhouse gases. By making different data sources and frameworks comparable, understandable and verifiable, the Flagship lays the foundations for organisations to take targeted measures to improve their decarbonisation efforts. It provides assessment frameworks and tailored visualisation tools, making it easier to analyse the carbon footprints of supply chains.