Submit short application

Requirements
What should your short application include?
What does the Swiss Accelerator fund?
Evaluation criteria
Submit short application
Decision regarding the short application

Your SME or start-up is already established on the market and has a highly competitive R&D project in order to develop, commercialise and scale breakthrough innovations. You can apply for direct financial support for your innovation project from the Swiss Accelerator programme.

Applications to the Swiss Accelerator are made via a three-stage process:

Submit your short application.
You will be invited to submit a full application based on Innosuisse’s evaluation of your short application.
Based on the evaluation of your full application, you will be invited to present your application to Innosuisse. The Innovation Council then makes the final funding decision.

Requirements

Your company submits an application for an individual project. Projects by consortia or university research groups are not supported. Your SME or start-up must satisfy the following requirements.

Your SME or start-up:

is domiciled in Switzerland and has a Swiss company identification number;
is already established on the market;
has no more than 250 full-time equivalents at the time the application is submitted
(for companies that are part of a group, the number of full-time equivalents across the entire group of companies is decisive);
aims to commercialise the project results quickly and effectively and to scale accordingly;
does not have ongoing funding from the EIC Accelerator for the same project; and
is not on SECO’s sanctions list.

In the assessment, the text of the funding ordinance and the corresponding implementing provisions are always determining.

IMPORTANT: Start-ups that have not yet entered the market are not allowed to submit applications for Swiss Accelerator projects. They are welcome to apply for the start-up innovation projects funding offer.

Non-commercially active associations and foundations as well as public organisations are not considered SMEs or start-ups for the purposes of the Swiss Accelerator.

What should your short application include?

Your short application summarises all the key aspects of your innovation project that make it promising.

You can submit your application in English or in a national language.

What does the Swiss Accelerator fund?

Innosuisse supports projects with above-average innovation and disruption potential from SMEs and start-ups with the aim of quickly and effectively implementing the project results.

The funding is intended to make a substantial contribution to projects that require high-risk capital to take important development steps. The Swiss Accelerator is aimed only at SMEs and start-ups that are already established on the market.

The funding from Innosuisse is a maximum of 70 percent of the eligible project costs. The company bears 30 percent of the costs itself. Innosuisse funding amounts to a maximum of 2.5 million Swiss francs per application.

Eligible costs in the overview

Costs include wage costs as well as necessary material and equipment costs of the company.
Grant contributions may be used for wages and material costs that are actually incurred and necessary to develop the innovation to competitive market readiness in the target market, including: Miniaturisation, regulatory compliance activities, customer testing, clinical trials, customisation due to different market requirements, initial market validation, intellectual property management, etc.
Costs that have no influence on the design of the solution on the market, such as costs that are solely for customer acquisition and marketing, are not eligible. These also include, among other things, costs for setting up distribution channels or establishing branches in other countries.
A maximum of 70 percent of the project costs will be covered by Innosuisse (up to a maximum of 2.5 million Swiss francs). The company bears 30 percent of the eligible costs itself.

In detail

Wage costs: Eligible personnel costs are the effective salaries including employer contributions of the project staff according to their hourly workload in the project.
Material costs: Eligible material costs include the procurement of infrastructure required for the project if it is not part of the company’s basic infrastructure, market research and resulting activities such as the development of pricing models or the management of intellectual property, the procurement of third-party services (including research services from research partners) required for the project, e.g. clinical trials, as well as necessary cross-border travel.

Evaluation criteria: This is how your application will be evaluated

Your short application will be evaluated by three experts based on the following criteria. These evaluation criteria are closely related to the EIC Accelerator Grant Funding and take the Innosuisse criteria for project funding into account. These criteria also apply to your full application in the second application step.

In the assessment, the text of the funding ordinance and the corresponding implementing provisions are always determining.

Criteria in four areas:

1. Innovation:

Level of innovation: The innovation has a high degree of novelty compared to currently available solutions and has disruption potential.
Scalability: The business model associated with the innovation is scalable and has high growth potential.
Scientific basis and feasibility: The innovation is based on a technology that has been sufficiently validated in a relevant environment in order to assess the potential and evaluate the risk.
Intellectual property: The company owns the necessary intellectual property rights to ensure freedom to operate (FTO).
Timing: The timing of the innovation is appropriate with respect to relevant factors such as market conditions as well as social and technological developments.

2. Value creation:

Market potential: The target market for the innovation is appropriate, suitably defined and assessed.
Competition: Thorough analysis of the competition is available. The unique selling points (USP) and the key differentiators from competitors are defined. The company can adequately protect itself from competition (e.g., through intellectual property rights, speed to market, etc.).
Marketing: There is a convincing, well thought-out commercialisation strategy including a business and revenue model.
Sustainability: The innovation contributes to the sustainable development of society, the economy and/or the environment (e.g. to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals).
Value creation in Switzerland: The implementation of the innovation increases value creation in Switzerland.

3. Project set-up:

Project planning: There is a clear and realistic implementation plan with defined milestones, work packages, deliverables and resources.
Team: The team has the capacity and skills to implement and bring the innovation to market, or has or will have access to all critical skills.
Risk management: The most important risks have been identified and realistic mitigation measures defined.
Key partners: The key partners needed to develop and commercialise the innovation have been identified and the necessary partnerships have been initiated or established, depending on the status and planning of the project.

4. Cost-benefit ratio:

Cost-benefit ratio: This is a high-risk, high-benefit project. Without the funding contribution from Swiss Accelerator, there is a risk that the company will miss the ideal moment.