Innosuisse participates in the survey to learn more about the innovation behavior of its own funding clientele. The results of the current study from 2021 show that innovation activities at companies supported by Innosuisse have increased in the last two years. The share of market novelties in sales in 2020 is significantly higher than for companies that have not applied for subsidies. The Covid 19 pandemic has had a significant impact on corporate innovation behavior. Digitization has received a boost. Around half of the funding clients make a potentially high contribution to at least one of the global sustainability goals through their innovations.
As part of the Swiss Innovation Survey, the Business Cycle Research Center at ETH Zurich surveys Swiss companies every two years on their innovation behavior. In addition, KOF conducts in-depth surveys and evaluations of its own funding clients on behalf of Innosuisse.
The 2019 survey focused on comparing innovative companies that received funding from Innosuisse with companies that did not submit an application or did not receive funding.
The present Innovation Survey 2021 focuses on the innovation behavior of companies. A total of over 3,500 companies that submitted applications for innovation projects and/or innovation checks to Innosuisse between 2016 and 2020 were surveyed. 1056 companies participated in the survey, which corresponds to a response rate of around 30%. The results do not focus directly on the impact of funding. However, they do provide information about the nature of innovation activities.