From 2023, companies and other implementation partners will contribute 40 to 60 percent of the total direct project costs to innovation projects. Up to now, the rule has been half participation. In international innovation project funding, Swiss implementation partners, for example SMEs, can receive direct funding from Innosuisse. This puts them on an equal footing with their foreign project partners.
Innosuisse can also now fund innovation projects by start-ups in preparation for their first market entry. Until now, start-ups as implementation partners in innovation projects with research partners had to finance their own contributions themselves. For such projects, a research partner is no longer required. The Innosuisse Contribution Ordinance also contains new provisions on the promotion of young researchers and introduces the possibility of supporting organisations in the start-up ecosystem. It also fleshes out the promotion of science-based entrepreneurship and knowledge and technology transfer.
On 26 October 2022, the Federal Council approved the total revision of the Funding Ordinance of the Swiss Agency for Innovation Promotion Innosuisse. With the new ordinance, Innosuisse is implementing the revision of the Federal Law on the Promotion of Research and Innovation (FLPRI) from the end of December 2021. All ordinance provisions are to enter into force together with the revised FLPRI on 1 January 2023.