Eased financial terms for innovation projects are intended to help SMEs maintain their innovative strength during the pandemic. Applicants can chose either measure 1 or measure 2 of the impulse programme for new innovation projects submitted in 2021 and 2022.
Your company plans to develop innovative products, services or processes. To do so, you need the expertise of a Swiss research institute. Then you should join forces and realise your innovation project together.
Innosuisse co-funds innovation projects that companies and private and public institutions conduct jointly with research partners.
Innovation projects explained in two minutes
Requirements for submitting an application
Project partners who want to submit an application must meet certain requirements.
As a company or as private or public institution (so-called implementation partner)
As an implementation partner, you must meet these five requirements:
Your company or private or public institution must operate in Switzerland and engage in value-creating activities.
The focus of your project must be on science-based innovation, i.e. on implementing the latest research findings on the market.
Your project must address a market need and promise to be commercially successful or to benefit society.
You must assume the project costs incurred within your company and be prepared to cover your research partner's expenses in an amount equivalent to at least 10% of the funding offered by Innosuisse.
A Swiss research partner must be prepared to implement an innovation project with you.
As researcher
You must work at a Swiss research institution. Your research institution (the so-called research partner of the project) must belong to one of the following categories:
Eligibility for submitting an application is checked using a specific application for funding for an innovation project. Since this institution cannot yet be selected in the online application portal for applications involving new research partners, and no hourly rates for staff have been stored for these applications yet, the research partner must first get in touch at innoprojects@innosuisse.ch and let us know their request. The institution will then be incorporated in the application platform.
For the first application, personnel costs will then be calculated provisionally at the maximum hourly rates. The new research institution submits the documents listed in the information sheet (PDF, 280 kB, 25.02.2021) in parallel with the application for funding. If eligibility for contributions is recognised, the research centre must report its notional hourly rates to Innosuisse, and the personnel costs will be recalculated before the contract is drawn up.
In the online application platform, personnel costs are calculated on the basis of the standard notional hourly rates stored for the respective research institutions. Together with the material costs applied for, these make up the project budget. There is also an overhead (percentage calculation on the personnel costs) which is added. This gives you the funding budget. The cost ceiling is calculated taking into account the maximum rates for personnel costs, which are laid down in the implementing provisions (PDF, 468 kB, 13.04.2022).
Project budget: The project budget is calculated using the notional hourly rates determined for personnel and material costs in the application and is considered the planned budget for the project. Including the overhead, this gives you the funding budget.
Cost ceiling: The cost ceiling is calculated by means of the maximum hourly rates for project staff in the application and is stipulated in the funding agreement together with the project budget. The cost ceiling may be used up without amending the funding agreement provided the increase in personnel costs is due to reasonable salary increases, necessary higher contributions to social insurances, measures to compensate for inflation, salary increases due to changes in personnel within the same project function category, minor adjustments to the distribution of estimated working hours among the various personnel functions, or approved changes to key personnel. However, both the financial contribution (cash contribution) and the implementation partner’s own contribution are set in the funding agreement according to the funding budget and are not variable.
Effective costs: The effective costs are the verifiable costs incurred as a result of the project, which must be reported in the project’s final statement of accounts (including the relevant supporting documents). The amount of the final funding instalment and the amount actually paid out is determined on the basis of the final statement of accounts.
Contributions by Innosuisse are not subject to value-added tax as subsidies in accordance with Art. 18 Para. 2 Letter a of the VAT Act, but are counted as non-remuneration. On the other hand, the expenses incurred by the research centres for the project (e.g. costs for a machine) are subject to VAT. This means that the research centre’s expenses and financial cash contribution must be specified in the application and in the statement of accounts, in each case including VAT.
At the beginning of each calendar year, Innosuisse sends out a guide, a test certificate and an Excel template. The calculation of the notional hourly rates using an Excel template is roughly as follows: total sum of the annual gross salaries of all research institution staff per personnel function divided by full-time equivalents and annual productive hours.
Innosuisse has sent all research partners who have previously taken part in projects an Excel template for the calculation of the notional hourly rates as well as a guide and a test certificate. If your institution has not received these documents, they can be requested by sending an e-mail to supervision@innosuisse.ch.
The annual hours that may be allocated to the project are based on the internal guidelines of the respective research institution or implementation partner.
The rule that the salaries submitted for reimbursement may not be funded by other means applies equally to all project staff. The function criterion, or whether or the employment relationship is temporary or permanent, is not relevant.
No personnel costs can be claimed for project staff whose employment is already fully funded by the public sector or other third-party funding. If this is not the case for professors in a given funding application, it is the responsibility of the respective research partner to provide proof to this effect.
In the application, a flat rate of 20 percent based on salary costs is initially calculated to cover contributions to social insurances under the OASIA/InvIA/LECA, OPA and UIA.
The hours must be entered according to the employee’s personnel function and his/her salary costs in the research institution and not according to his/her function within the project.
Material costs are eligible provided they are necessary for the realisation of the project, do not relate to the basic infrastructure of a research institution and are not covered by the financial contribution of the implementation partner.
This may include costs for equipment, consumables, third-party services and international travel. Publication of research results and travel within Switzerland are not eligible (these are included in the overhead).
The claimed costs for research infrastructure must be necessary for the implementation of the project and may not be part of the research institution’s basic infrastructure. The rates of depreciation during the lifetime of the project, calculated according to the institution’s internal accounting rules, are eligible.
If the infrastructure (including infrastructure that already exists) is not exclusively used for an Innosuisse project, the actual share of use in the project can be booked to the project. The share of use must be duly verifiable (e.g. through laboratory notebooks) and auditable.
The costs of consumables that are necessary for the implementation of the project and that have been purchased during the lifetime of the project and are not part of the research institution’s standard infrastructure are eligible. The relevance to the project must be clearly documented (e.g. with a purchase receipt).
Project work is normally carried out by parties associated with the project.
The use of third parties must be justified and necessary for the project. This may also involve purchasing services from third parties, for example for computing time and cloud computing. If a research institution abroad has to be commissioned for certain tasks, these costs can be claimed as third-party services.
Travel costs are eligible provided they are absolutely necessary for the implementation of the project, in particular in the case of projects involving travel outside Switzerland. Costs for travel within Switzerland must be covered by the overhead portion and are not reimbursed separately.
The equipment and facilities that are part of the research centre’s basic infrastructure and usual operations and are standard cannot be procured at Innosuisse’s expense. Nor can their use be charged to Innosuisse.
Basic infrastructure includes equipment, materials and other items of infrastructure that are part of the standard equipment of a research institution with a comparable research purpose. This includes, for example, standard IT equipment including hardware and software or, in a clinical setting, disposable gloves and syringes. However, if a piece of software is directly related to the project and is essential to the project’s realisation, its costs can be claimed.
Overhead contributions serve to partially cover the costs incurred by the research institutions as a result of research projects that Innosuisse supports within the scope of its project funding (Art. 33 RIPO).
Parliament sets the maximum flat-rate payment. For the 2021–2024 financial period, this is 15 percent.
Innosuisse sets the applicable percentage relative to the funds that are available each year. For 2021, Innosuisse is paying the maximum 15-percent rate.
The funding agreement or the financial acceptance letter will state the overhead per research centre in the case of projects involving several research centres.
The amount the implementation partners contribute to the project must be at least as much as Innosuisse’s calculated project contributions according to the funding budget set out in the funding agreement. The project contribution not including the overhead portion (i.e. not including the overhead contribution) is decisive here.
The implementation partners’ contribution is made up of in-kind contributions (their own work) and financial (cash) contributions to the research partners. The financial cash contribution is at least 10 percent of Innosuisse’s contribution to the project.
Financial contributions made by the implementation partners to the research partners in order to cover necessary costs incurred by the research partners in the course of implementation of the project (in particular salary and material costs) are counted towards the cash contribution.
The implementation partners’ personnel and material costs that are necessarily incurred due to their participation in the project are counted towards the in-kind contribution.To calculate the personnel costs in the application, the implementation partners use the notional hourly rates of the main research partner as well as a flat rate of 20 percent for contributions to social insurances.
Material costs are counted towards the in-kind contributions, provided that they are necessary for the proper implementation of the project and correspond to the effective costs, i.e. can be shown in the implementation partners’ operating accounts.
You can now submit new applications for innovation projects through the Innolink application platform. You can still submit applications that are already in preparation through Analytics. Applications for innovation cheques and start-up coaching will be submitted through Analytics until further notice.
Yes. You need to register again for Innolink when you log in for the first time. Due to Innolink's modern technology, your old Analytics account is not valid on Innolink.
> Do you want to know if your idea could be patented?
Are you in the process of submitting an application for an innovation project to Innosuisse? Then you can benefit free of charge from an assisted patent search by the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI).
Project database
ARAMIS database
On the ARAMIS database, you will find all the innovation projects that are supported by Innosuisse and other government organisations.
The Innosuisse platforms are used to submit and manage applications to Innosuisse. Project partners and start-ups can submit applications. Innosuisse members can access the projects and cases assigned to them.
Are you in the process of applying for Innosuisse funding for an innovation project? Then take advantage of a free assisted patent search from the Intellectual Property Institute.
