Innosuisse Flagship Initiative - Call for proposals 2021

The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated digital transformation. Whole industries and many sectors of the society have to rethink their business models and their ways of action. Innovative digital solutions may in many cases not only offer a suitable answer to societal and business challenges, but they may as well path the way to a more sustainable world and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

1. Coping with COVID-19 induced acceleration of digital transformation

The proposals within this topic must concentrate on the following focus areas:

1. Education, learning and teaching
2. Tourism and travel industry
3. Real estate and urban planning
4. Healthcare and medical technology

2. Improving resilience and sustainability and reducing vulnerability of society, infrastructure and processes

The proposals within this topic must concentrate on one of the following focus areas:

1. Demographic shift
2. Supply chains
3. Resilience of ICT infrastructures
4. Decarbonisation

Eligible structure and specifications

Partners

The invitation to tender is addressed to consortia of research and implementation partners. The consortium consists of more than two research partners, of which at least one is a university of applied sciences, and at least two implementation partners. Innosuisse does not prescribe how the consortium should organize itself, but one representative of a HEI or a non-commercial research institution outside the university sector has to act as host institution. New partners may join the consortium or partners may withdraw from the flagship as long as the originally formulated objectives are not affected negatively and the contractually stipulated conditions are fulfilled. Such changes must be approved by Innosuisse in advance. Modifications of objectives or contractual conditions are possible upon request and prior written approval by Innosuisse.

The consortium defines a host institution (one of the research partner). The host institution defines a representative, who is the contact person for Innosuisse and who signs the flagship proposal. All involved partner sign a specific power of attorney. By signing the power of attorney, the signatory agrees with the contents of the pre-proposal and proposal.

Duration

There are no conditions regarding the length of a flagship. However, Innosuisse assume that a flagship will be longer compared to an average Innosuisse innovation project due to the systemic approach and transdisciplinarity.

Eligible costs

Personnel costs: Innosuisse funds cover the effective wage costs of the research partners incl. overhead and employer contribution. The personnel costs are calculated either with payroll statements or the applicable notional hourly rates according to the implementing provisions for funding innovation projects.

Material costs are funded according to the implementing provisions for funding innovation projects. Only costs that are actually incurred and are absolutely necessary for the proper execution of the flagship are taken into account. All the planned material costs need to be included in the proposal. Certain coordination tasks like organising workshops between partners as well as the midterm review can be covered within this category.

Financing conditions: Innosuisse covers a certain amount of the direct costs of a flagship. The legal basis allows an Innosuisse contribution of 50%. The implementation partners contribute to the total costs of the flagship as well, which must at least correspond to the project contributions of Inno-suisse. A reduced participation by the implementation partners is possible in accordance with Article 30 Research and Innovation Promotion Ordinance RIPO. The implementation partners’ contribution consists of own work and services as well as financing (cash amount) to the research partner. The financial (cash) contribution is at least 10 per cent of the funding contribution made by Innosuisse.

Submission and Evaluation of an application

The application process is competitive and will be a 2-step procedure (Figure 4 and 5): pre-proposal and proposal.

Timing:

• 31 March 2021:Deadline for mandatory pre-proposal (noon Central European Summer Time / CEST). The mandatory pre-proposal forms must be used
• May 2021: Innosuisse Feedback to applicants
• 13 August 2021:Deadline proposal (noon Central European Summer Time / CEST). The mandatory proposal form must be used
• October 2021: Innosuisse Feedback to applicants

Evaluation criteria

• Innovation degree: Is the scientific and economic/societal approach new? Is it not only «incremental» but also «systemic» innovation, which means, does the scientific and eco-nomic/societal approach contribute to change a system in the long term?
• Value creation and sustainability in Switzerland: Does the implementation of the re-search results on the market have a positive influence on the competitive situation of the implementation partner(s)? Does successful implementation demonstrably reduce (social) costs and/or create eco-nomic benefit (e.g. reducing poverty, increasing the quality of life, improving the quality of education, reducing injustice, increasing biodiversity), which leads to a positive impact on the future well-being of the country?
• Project set-up:
  • Methodological quality: What is the quality of the project structure (e.g. are the goals and milestones realistic? Is the exchange between the pro-ject partners guaranteed and expected?)
  • Competencies of the project partners: Do the project partners have the necessary competences for the execution and the intended implementa-tion on the market? Is the consortium well positioned across disciplines (transdisciplinarity)?

More Information:

• Call for proposal webpage
• Guide for applicants
• Pre-proposal application template
• Proposal application template
• Administrative form
• Financial plan
• Risk analysis
• Innosuisse contact : [email protected]

EPFL contact: [email protected]