Innosuisse projects

• Application toolkit

Required information for preparation of an application for Innosuisse funding are available in the Research Office Toolkit.

• Information Session

Once a year, an information session is organized to support the preparation of applications for Innosuisse Innovation Projects. During this session, participants receive guidance on the project and application process from EPFL and Innosuisse experts.

• Slides of last information session
• Upcoming information session (to be communicated)

• Proposal review

VPI and Alliance can help you prepare your Innosuisse application in 3 steps: first, check the relevance of your project with respect to specific Innosuisse criteria, then position the main objectives and help you improve the content, concerning economic impact, innovative aspects and the working plan, finally check the global coherence of the proposal. The support is provided to the implementation partner and to the research partner. Ideally, contact us before you start writing. If needed, we can also look after additional implementation or research partners to complete the consortium.

Contact: Innovation Mentor

• Project budget

The Research Office is at your disposal to offer advice on the eligibility of costs and the preparation of the project budget.

Contact: Research Office

• Conflict of Interest (COI)

When applying to Innosuisse grants, there are two different aspects related to potential CoI situations to consider:

• Innosuisse asks to declare if any of the research staff involved in the project or research partner (legal person) own 20% or more of shares in an involved implementation partner.
• EPFL internal rules about Conflict of Interest (LEX 4.1.1) do apply in any case, including for projects funded by Innosuisse. This means that a possible C.o.I. situation might arise also in cases when the research staff involved in the project own 20% or less of shares in an involved implementation partner. See the EPFL-ReO Fast Guide.

• Registration of the proposal on GrantsDB

The proposal must be registered on GrantsDB immediately after submission, without awaiting the funding decision.

The funding decision has to be registered in GrantsDB immediately after the acceptance from Innosuisse (mail and/or letter with the funding agreement in a zip file).

More information about the administrative management (Login GASPAR required): 
GrantsDB, opening of funds, Function codes EPFL vs Innosuisse, etc.

Once you receive the acceptance letter/the positive e-mail from Innosuisse, you will need to deal with three main contracts/documents:

• Funding agreement – is the contract between Innosuisse on one side and the project partners on the other side with the grant details. It will be signed on the EPFL side by the Head of unit and by the Head of the Research office, before the project starts.

Contact: Research Office

• IPR agreement – is the contract establishing Intellectual Property Rights between the project partners, also known as the “research agreement” or “consortium agreement”. The TTO is responsible to set up the document and assist you in the negotiations of the terms of this agreement with the company(ies) and other research partners. The IPR agreement will be signed on the EPFL side by the Head of Unit and the Head of the TTO. It is generally due within 1-to-3 months after the project starting date.

For more information on the IP agreement visit: https://www.epfl.ch/research/technology-transfer/collaborate/establish/agreements/

Contact: TTO contract manager

• IPR declaration – is a simple 2-pages PDF form to confirm to Innosuisse that the IPR agreement (which is confidential) is indeed in place. It will be signed on EPFL side by the Head of Unit alone, without need of double signature, after the IPR agreement will be finalized and signed. It can be downloaded from the Innosuisse webpage. The project coordinator shall collect signatures from the other partners and send back a signed copy to Innosuisse. 

• Amendments – amendments to the grant agreement can be needed for various reasons, such as changes to the project partners, modifications to the scope of the project and project objectives, amendments to the project’s duration or planning, and hanges with significant financial implications (cost increase >10%).

Significant changes to your project must be reported to Innosuisse by means of a status report, accompanied where necessary by a request to make changes to the financial plan.

Contact the Research Office and/or the TTO whenever amendments to the Funding and IPR Agreements are required.

• Start to run meeting

Research Office offers an overview of administrative and financial obligations linked to your grant, and introduces tools for effective grant management. Register for the upcoming start to run meeting : Contact: Research Office

• Timekeeping

Time keeping is mandatory for the Innosuisse projects. The rules are strict, and the Research Office is here to help you with any questions. Do not hesitate to contact the Research Office if you have any doubt and/or issues, as no exceptions will be made if deadlines are not met.

More information (Login GASPAR required) :
How to record and submit hours
Chronos reporting tool User Guide
All knowledge articles on support.epfl.ch

A financial report is expected by Innosuisse, at the end of the project. Interim financial reports may need to be submitted at the request of Innosuisse.

All reports must be submitted directly on Innolink.

EPFL Financial Service (CDG) supports you for providing the financial reports by preparing the data and requested documents on the platform Innolink.

Each project partner needs to submit the report individually and the coordinator can submit the final consolidated report once each partner completed its part.

 Contact: EPFL Financial Service

• https://alliance-innovation.ch/en/alliance-a-propos/
• https://www.epfl.ch/campus/services/finance/services-of-the-vice-presidency-of-financ/fund-management/innosuisse/
• https://www.epfl.ch/research/funding/individual/pi/
• https://www.epfl.ch/research/technology-transfer/collaborate/establish/agreements/
• https://www.innosuisse.admin.ch/en/innosuisse-guide