Results of the impact monitoring 2021–2023
Version 1.1.3, last changes: April 14th, 2025
Innosuisse – the Swiss Agency for Innovation Promotion – places great emphasis on transparently demonstrating the effectiveness of innovation promotion to stakeholders, political decision-makers and the public.
The following two questions are at the forefront:
- What impact do the public funds used have on funding recipients (companies, organisations and start-ups)?
- Is knowledge and technology transfer between companies and research being strengthened and in what way?
The report is structured as follows:
The most important results from the impact monitoring are briefly summarised below. In the editorial, we assess these from Innosuisse's point of view. The methodological principles explain the embedding, conception and evaluation of the impact monitoring.
The results are presented in detail and briefly discussed in the main part. We recommend starting here for the in-depth, graphically illustrated sections on the support offers (see the chapters on the left under Results).
- The chapter on support offers and content shows how broadly the monitoring covers Innosuisse's instruments. The comparative results compare the support offers with each other.
- After that, the results of the impact monitoring are presented and explained in a chapter for each support offer.
In the first half of 2025, an update of the results will follow based on the 2024 monitoring.
Key results at a glance
Comparitive impact results
Selected monitoring results, which are collected in a standardised way, allow comparisons to be made across the support offers.
- Satisfaction: Funding beneficiaries are satisfied or very satisfied with the services provided by Innosuisse and their implementation: 89% of Innovation Booster participants, around 90% of researchers and 80% of implementation partners among implementation partners, and 68% of start-ups in Core Coaching. The number of funding recipients who are not satisfied or only slightly satisfied with the funding offer is consistently low, ranging from 1% to 2%.
- Incremental and radical innovations: Innosuisse funds both radical and incremental innovations. The respective shares differ depending on the support offer. In the case of innovation projects with implementation partners, 25% of innovations are clearly incremental and 27% clearly radical. For start-ups in coaching, the share of radical innovations is more than twice as high at 55%.
Projects by companies with researchers
Innovation projects with implementation partners
National innovation projects are Innosuisse's most important funding instrument. Companies and organisations from the economy and society cooperate with research partners to jointly develop innovative products, services, processes or new business models.
- Market launch: Three years after the funding has ended, more than half of the funded innovations (57%) have either been launched on the market, implemented in the company or are scheduled to be launched in the next two years.
- Job creation: A funded project leads to an average of 2.5 new and highly qualified jobs over the years 2021–2023. Three years after the funding comes to an end, the projects will have created around 800 to 900 full-time positions. This positive impact of the funding has also been confirmed by a scientific study conducted by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich. Three years after completion, companies that have received Innosuisse funding report 18% higher employment than comparable innovative companies without Innosuisse funding.
- The leverage effect of funding creates added value: Through the newly created jobs, funding leads directly to additional added value at the funded companies: Each franc of funding brings the economy directly around four francs of added value, measured three years after the funding and totalled for three further years.
- Strengthening of knowledge and technology transfer: The knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) also has a long-term effect: almost half of the companies continue to work with their research partners three years after the end of the project. 15% additionally take on research staff who were involved in the project. This enables them to strengthen their internal knowledge and innovation base.
Innovation cheque
The innovation cheque offers SMEs and start-ups low-threshold funding. The aim is to carry out feasibility and market studies as well as technological clarifications.
- Cooperation with research: Thanks to the innovation cheque, more than half of the participating companies can be introduced to knowledge and technology transfer with research. 70% of SMEs continue to work with their research partner after the project is completed.
- Results achieved: The collaboration with research partners is successfully tested in almost all cases. 63% of companies have successfully tested and further developed their innovation idea and fully achieved this goal. Around a quarter of innovation cheques subsequently carry out an innovation project.
Projects by researchers
Innovation projects without implementation partner
Innovation projects without implementation partners aim to develop scientific findings into applications for high-risk projects with high innovation potential and to take the first steps towards implementation.
- Application orientation: Half of the funded projects provide conclusive results for further implementation steps and half of the projects are highly likely to have longer-term potential for a market launch.
- Collaboration with implementation partners: More than two-thirds of the projects have already worked with potential implementation partners. Start-ups and spin-offs that emerge from research play an important role in KTT. In 38% of the projects, such a spin-off has already been or is planned.
BRIDGE Proof of Concept
The support offers from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Innosuisse provide researchers with a year of support to develop research results into marketable products and prepare a career outside of research and universities.
- Founding start-ups from research: Around 70% of the supported researchers found a start-up or spin-off after the funding (start-up with formal IP licensing).
Project set-up assistance and networking
Innovation Booster
At the topic-oriented Innovation Boosters, new and radical innovation ideas are developed in an open and network-based innovation process. The focus is on the early phase of experimental idea generation and testing of ideas. Promising innovation ideas are to be further pursued in projects.
- Skills and competencies of participants: The vast majority of respondents (82 %) confirm that their participation in an Innovation Booster has increased their ability to develop and test radical ideas.
- Continuation of innovation ideas: Every second funded innovation idea is pursued further, often with new approaches. This results in an average of 26 innovation projects at Innosuisse per year.
Support for start-ups
Start-up Coaching
The coaching supports start-ups with innovative and science-based business ideas by providing tailored support in various start-up phases. The support offers are divided into three coordinated offers – Initial, Core and Scale-up Coaching. Start-ups have the opportunity to participate in international camps and internationally important trade fairs. The results of the impact monitoring relate to Start-up Core Coaching.
- Support for start-ups in Core Coaching: Around four out of five start-ups that received coaching confirm that Core Coaching has made a significant contribution to the development of the start-up in at least one key area (78%). The percentage of start-ups whose expectations of the overall coaching process were mostly met is even slightly higher at 84%.
- Capital acquisition: By the time they completed their Core Coaching, 21% of start-ups had acquired over CHF 5 million in capital. Two-thirds received direct and helpful support in their fundraising efforts during Core Coaching.