Innovation Booster Digital Health Nation

Ready to take the next step? Your success is just few steps away:

1. Sign up for the Open Innovation call if you are interested in addressing a current Challenge.
2. Refine your idea and find partners by attending our events, where you’ll gain insights into the challenges and network with potential collaborators.
3. Submit your application as the Open innovation call is running and attend the Open innovation day.
4. Eligible ideas will be invited to pitch in front of the expert panel and selected Top 5 projects will be invited to join the “Idea to MVP” stage.

Anyone can apply for the Open innovation call and participate in Challenge events aimed foster collaboration and knowledge exchange, creating a shared understanding of the problems being addressed and generating innovative solutions.

To be eligible for the Innovation Booster “Idea to MVP” stage support and funding, teams must have at least one research partner and one implementation partner. Research partners can be university research institutes, non-commercial research centers, departmental research institutions or federal research institutes. Implementation partners can be SMEs, larger companies, start-ups, non-profit organizations or others with the potential to contribute to the innovation process.​ The definition of implementation partners is flexible and depends on the nature of the idea being explored.

For ideas that are further away from the final customer or B2B projects, research or non-commercial organizations can serve as implementation partners, conducting initial tests with a limited number of users or testing the idea in a limited field. However, for ideas that are closer to the market or B2C products and services, implementation partners must have the capability to offer industrialization or mass production, commercialization and product or service support, depending on the specific case. It’s the responsibility of each Innovation Booster to assess the implementation partners of the supported innovation teams according to this definition.​

Innovation boosters aim to promote the economical and societal development of Switzerland, and the ideas must directly contribute to this goal. While international partners can be included in innovation teams, the primary benefit should be for the Swiss economy and society.

The following conditions apply:

1. IBs must award and release the innovation team funding to a Swiss beneficiary.
2. A Swiss implementation partner is required in every innovation team and value creation must be in Switzerland.

To fully benefit from the program, in frames of the particular Challenge participants are expected to actively engage in developing their ideas by taking part in all program activities, including workshops, coaching sessions, and bootcamps. At least one team member must participate in key activities, including the Open innovation days before the Top 5 selection. Selected Top 5 teams are expected to stay committed to achieving milestones and following the program’s timeline, ensuring steady progress, validation of the idea`s feasibility, viability and desirability and alignment with the program’s goals.

Individuals are welcome to apply for an Open innovation call of the program and build your team with the support of the Innovation Booster. Only a project team consisting of at least one implementation and one academic partner can be selected among the Top 5 for the acceleration stage and receive funding.

If you don’t yet have a team or partners, you can:

• Attend our networking events or Open innovation day to find collaborators.
• Reach out to us at yana.yoncheva@baselarea.swiss for support in forming your team.

Please note that only legal entities are eligible for funding.

If you’re looking to form an innovation team for your idea, we’re here to support you. A great way to connect with potential partners is by attending our open innovation events and webinars. Additionally, applying for the Open Innovation Call provides an opportunity to collaborate with other innovators interested in the topic.
Challenge owners can also act as project partners, so we encourage you to submit your application early to allow enough time to build and strengthen partnerships.

For additional support, contact our program manager at yana.yoncheva@baselarea.swiss.

Only fully completed applications that meet the basic eligibility requirements for Innovation Booster support will be considered for evaluation. Eligible applications are reviewed by our panel based on the following key criteria:

• Innovation Level: How novel and impactful the idea is.
• Feasibility: Whether the solution can be realistically developed and implemented.
• Team Capabilities: The project team’s expertise, cross-disciplinary skills, and readiness to execute the idea effectively.
• Impact: The potential to address the Challenge’s goals and contribute to the Swiss healthcare system and economy.

For each announced Challenge, five ideas will be selected for acceleration and funding. Selected teams will be notified via email to confirm their participation.

Once selected, you’ll receive an invitation to sign the program agreement, which includes funding limits and conditions, requirements and benefits, as well as details about the innovation team members.

Challenge “Improving clinical data capture for better healthcare outcomes” brought by USB and PHB

• Open innovation call: February 5 – March 21, 2025
• Open Innovation Day: March 21, 2025
• Pitch and Final Selection: March 25, 2025
• Idea to MVP (for Top 5 projects): April – June, 2025
• Demo-day: 23 June, 2025

Stay tuned for dates announcement of the second Challenge of 2025.

The Innovation Booster supports selected innovation teams with dedicated innovation team funding. ​​Innovation teams can use this support exclusively for necessary expenses connected to the exploration of their idea for a radical solution.  ​​

Eligible expenses can include expenses for: ​

• feasibility, user or market studies
• the development of explorative models and prototypes to illustrate innovation ideas and test potential solutions
• the methodological support provided to the innovation teams by specialists, for example using design thinking methods.

Follow our LinkedIn page to be informed of the news about this program.