Cti Portrait — Report — R&D Funding

2011 ACTIVITY REPORT THE NEW CTI 01 04 05 2011 – COMMENTARY REPORT FACTS AND FIGURES 2011 PAge 03 / 72 PAge 16 / 72 PAge 59 / 72 — — — 02 04.1 06 GUEST CONTRIBUTION ON INNOVATION R&D FUNDING Directory PAge 08 / 72 PAge 19 / 72 PAge 62 / 72 — — — 03 04.2 CTI PORTRAIT START-UP AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP PAge 12 / 72 PAge 49 / 72 — — 04.3 KTT SUPPORT PAge 55 / 72 — “Because we like to think long term, we are conduct- ing three development projects at the same time. This wouldn’t be possible without the CTI.” PHILIPPE EMMANUEL GRIZE POSALUX SA “The success of our CTI project is thanks to the excellent cooperation with our partners in academia.” Freddy LEI Cendres+MétAUX SA0 “Thanks to the CTI project, Swiss producers can be involved in producing primary goods in a growth market.” JEAN-PauL Krattiger AND Pius EBERHARD FENACO “For us, it was the right money at just the right time.” Mauro Prevostini DOLPHIN ENGINEERING “In my experience, even small companies can carry out CTI projects with success. I can highly recommend these development projects.” Annette DOUGLAS ANNETTE DOUGLAS TEXTILES AG COMMENTARY CHapter 01 / 06 2011 under review Looking back on a year of change 01 PART I CTI reorganisation CTI ACTIVITY REPORT 2011 PAge 03 / 72 CHapter 01 / 06 COMMENTARY President’s foreword WALTER STEINLIN CTI PRESIDENT PAge 04 / 72 CTI ACTIVITY REPORT 2011 COMMENTARY CHAPter 01 / 06 Strong is not always good! This was the year of the strong Swiss of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs FDEA. The fact that franc, worth five times more against the dollar than it was during almost everyone was willing and able to continue to work with the my first stay in the USA, although admittedly that was several same degree of care and focus under the new structure is testa- decades ago. This was great news for imports, but disastrous for ment to considerable conscientiousness and inner strength. exports. The CTI’s main activity is still project funding and on that level In the year under review, we identified our main target group we received a baptism of fire in the form of the special measures. in the light of our revised KTT Support strategy. This group com- The start-up funding programme ran efficiently and very satisfac- prises about 10 000 SMEs who are able and willing to translate torily. It experienced a ‘soft handover’ from Urs Althaus, who de- research-based findings into products or production methods. veloped it and formed strong networks, to Faris Sabeti, who com- Nearly all of these companies operate competitively on the global petently took over the successful model and began to carefully market. These are companies which are unfairly disadvantaged by revise the partnership system. Meanwhile, the KTT Support strategy the strength of the Swiss franc, even though Switzerland has done revision process was running in the background. Having subsidised its economic homework. Comparing innovative activity between networks for the past five years, we now want to concentrate these countries has become an almost tedious exercise; Switzerland has activities on supporting SMEs, which occupy the weakest position topped the table for many years now. Youth unemployment, which in the innovation system. To do this, we have formed a new com- I see as a key indicator of the health of a country’s economy, is mission team. Myriam Meyer, who previously provided her advice hovering at around 4 per cent as I write. That is too high for each from the wings, agreed to become the new head of this section of those unemployed young people, but low in comparison with and apply the analysis results. The new strategy will be imple- other countries. Now the eurozone is afflicted and many countries mented from the beginning of 2013. are suffering the woes of the financial crisis. Switzerland, with its Despite our great satisfaction with what we have achieved, we small, highly developed and globalised economy, is having to pay nonetheless begin the new year with a large degree of respect and its solidarity contribution in the form of extreme demand on its self-criticism. We are very much aware of the responsibility we healthy currency, which results in huge disadvantages for its pro- bear in allocating millions of francs of taxpayers’ money, and want duction industries. This development in the franc was a huge issue to hone in on weaknesses and unclarified issues. For example, the for us in the second half of the year. In response to a suggestion separation of CTI funding from private industry innovation funding by the head of department, we proposed the introduction of special remains an issue which requires greater transparency. Internal measures; parliament then approved a special additional funding efficiency will also be a key matter to address, so that as little package worth 100 million Swiss francs, admittedly imposing a money as possible goes on administrative procedures. I personally very tight time frame. With enormous effort on the part of all those feel that it is important to look at and evaluate the long-term ef- involved we were able to allocate the full amount by the end of the fectiveness of the CTI’s work; this is an area in which there is still year to appropriate projects, which will likely trigger many times much to be done. that amount in new investment. I am proud of the commission members’ and administration’s professionalism, and of our inspiring mandate to turn research The special measures meant that our newly styled commission investment into economic value. For what can be more exciting was put to the test very soon. Since the beginning of 2011, following than helping great ideas and great people along the path to the partial revision of the RIPA (Research and Innovation Promotion success? Act), the CTI (Commission for Technology and Innovation) has been a formal executive commission. Our mandate remains the same but responsibilities have been reapportioned. There is now an elected commission with managerial and decision-making powers, which is represented in important issues by the seven-member Executive Board. The former section at OPET (Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology) now operates as an ad- WALTER STEINLIN ministrative office, preparing and carrying out business, and is part CTI PRESIDENT CTI ACTIVITY REPORT 2011 PAge 05 / 72 CHAPter 01 / 06 COMMENTARY “Four out of ten companies submitted an application to the CTI for the first time.” INTERVIEW WITH DR KLARA SEKANINA DR Klara SEKANINA DIRECTOR, CTI SECRETARIAT In 2011 the CTI received additional financing. Taking stock at the the year, companies reacted by submitting a larger number of beginning of 2012, do you think this has been used effectively? applications. Both these measures have led to a measurable degree The strong franc placed a strain on margins and so Swiss exporting of additional innovation. companies were discouraged from investing in innovative projects. As far back as February 2011 the Federal Council therefore re- Then an additional 100 million franc programme to counteract quested parliament to approve additional funds for the CTI of CHF the effects of the strong franc was launched by the government in 10 million in both 2011 and 2012. This request was met by parlia- autumn 2011. ment in June. The CTI then introduced two measures to encourage That’s right; that sparked an amazing innovative spurt. The special companies to innovate. Firstly, the additional funds available meant measures provided support to R&D projects with a high risk factor that the fixed amount companies were required to contribute to or projects designed to reduce the time to market. Forty per cent promotion projects could be reduced – provided the companies’ of all applications were submitted by companies which had never reduced margins made them eligible to receive these funds. Sec- before conducted a project with the CTI. ondly, the CTI introduced the ‘CTI voucher’, which makes it easier We also received a lot more applications for regular project fund- for SMEs and start-ups to be innovative in Research and Develop- ing. Businesses are keen to invest in innovation even in economi- ment (R&D). On the basis of a project description submitted by cally difficult times. A hundred million francs was not enough to the company, financial support is assured at an early stage. The fund all the projects submitted. Over 500 applications could not voucher gives businesses greater control over the development even be processed. We are closely monitoring the effects of the of R&D projects, and the company receives start-up support in special measures to see to what extent the objectives are achieved. realising ideas and, in a second step, in finding a suitable research As soon as findings from the analyses are available, they will be partner. When greater flexibility was introduced in the middle of made public. PAge 06 / 72 CTI ACTIVITY REPORT 2011 COMMENTARY CHAPter 01 / 06 How did your experts and secretariat staff cope with the enormous involved. The new ordinance makes it easier for innovative initiative amount of extra work? to flourish on both sides. Everyone is very motivated and flexible in their work. We received ten times the usual number of applications in the last two months How does innovation in Switzerland compare with EU countries of 2011. In these two months, thirty-four experts meetings were and the USA? held to carefully check and assess the applications. I should men- According to the Global Innovation Index 2011 by the renowned tion that the commission members work for the CTI in addition to business graduate school INSEAD, Switzerland is the world cham- their main jobs, so the meetings took place in the evenings, early pion in innovation.

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