Pre-proposal – submission, evaluation and recommendation

Requirements for submitting a pre-proposal

Flagship partners who want to submit a pre-proposal must meet certain requirements.

Note: the submission of a pre-proposal is a mandatory requirement for the submission of a proposal!

As a company or a private or public institution (so-called implementation partner)

You must meet these requirements:

• Your company or private or public institution must operate in Switzerland and engage in value-creating activities.
• You must cover the costs incurred within your company for the Flagship which must at least correspond to 40 to 60% of the overall project cost, and be prepared to cover your research partners' expenses, known as “cash contribution”, amounting to at least 5% of the total project costs.
• Swiss research partners must be prepared to implement a flagship with you.

As researchers

You must work at a Swiss research centre, and companies must want to realise a flagship with you. Your research institution (so called research partner) must belong to one of the following categories:

• Higher education research centres as per Art. 4, Letter c of the RIPA
• Non-commercial research centres outside the higher education sector in accordance with Art. 5 of the RIPA
• Government bodies as per Art. 16 (3) of the RIPA which carry out their own research projects for the purpose of fulfilling their mandates
• Federal research institutes in accordance with Art. 17 of the RIPA

Criteria for the evaluation of your pre-proposal

The members of the Innovation Council and experts will assess the quality of the applications submitted on the basis of the following criteria: 

• Innovation degree: Is the scientific and economic/societal approach novel? Is it not only an “incremental” but also a “systemic” innovation, i.e. does the scientific and economic/societal approach contribute to changing a system in the long term?
• Value creation and sustainability in Switzerland: Will the implementation of the research results on the market have a positive influence on the competitive situation of the implementation partner(s)? Will successful implementation demonstrably reduce (social) costs and/or create an economic benefit (e.g. reducing poverty, increasing the quality of life, improving the quality of education, reducing injustice or increasing biodiversity), which will lead to a positive impact on the future wellbeing of the country?
• Flagship setup

Evaluation and recommendation

First, the Innosuisse Secretariat checks your application. If the application meets the formal requirements, the substantive assessment process begins. The experts assess your pre-proposal and the Innovation Council decides whether or not to recommend the submission of a full proposal.

Recommendation for the submission of a proposal

After the Innovation Council’s assessment, Innosuisse will inform you by e-mail whether or not it recommends the submission of a full proposal. However, applicants are not bound by the recommendation.