Industry and RIS

Innovative products and companies are important for Switzerland's prosperity. The NRP promotes inter-company innovative SMEs in rural areas, mountain regions and border regions. The NRP does this in particular by promoting cross-cantonal “Regional Innovation Systems” (RIS), which support the networking of companies, education and research as well as the public sector.

Regional Innovation Systems RIS — © SECO

Regional innovation systems (RIS) refer to functional, mostly intercantonal economic areas in which the players required for the innovation process, such as companies, universities and the public sector (so-called triple helix), are networked with each other. The RIS develop regional innovation strategies and customised support offers for SMEs, network the players and thus promote innovation dynamics. Thus, the RIS are intended to boost regional value creation.

The RIS offer a comprehensive understanding of innovation that goes beyond the science and technology-based approach and also includes innovations of an organisational nature that create added value for companies. Innovation is primarily viewed from an economic perspective.

Objectives of the RIS

The aim of the RIS is to stimulate innovation dynamics in the regions through better coordination of existing innovation promotion programmes for SMEs and thus to fully exploit the regional innovation potential through regionally oriented innovation promotion.

Due to their distance from the agglomerations, their (less diversified) sector mix and the (smaller) average size of companies, rural areas are often at a disadvantage and do not benefit as much from the positive external effects of knowledge dissemination. In this context, services should be promoted to make it easier for these companies to access these players and cover the specific innovation needs of SMEs in the impact area.

RIS services

With funding from the federal government and the cantons, the NRP supports, through the RIS, citizen-oriented services (point of entry), services to support product and process innovation (coaching) and services for the development of cross-organisational platforms (clusters, networking events):

Point of Entry (PoE)

The Point of Entry refers companies to the right contact point within the innovation funding system. It identifies the needs of SMEs and coordinates them within the framework of the funding systems.

Coaching

The RIS coaches serve to support SMEs in product and process innovation. In this way, for example, the innovation potential of a company can be fully utilised.

Inter-company platforms

Through the organisation of events, the thematic platforms’ initiatives help to enhance companies’ capabilities, visibility and networking opportunities. These events aim to build expertise, raise awareness, inspire, support and inform the ecosystem about the challenges facing the sector, as well as to work together to find solutions.

RIS management and development

The RIS strategy is defined, further developed and optimised in this area. The cantons have the option of delegating part of this area to the RIS management organisation. In this case, RIS management is co-financed by the NRP.

Other innovation measures can also be supported, such as applied research projects, but on the express condition that they have a cross-company significance (at least two companies with a high level of financial involvement and cooperation that goes beyond the usual customer and supplier relationships) and have an economic significance for the region that goes beyond the economic benefit of the direct participants.

The RIS and their agencies

To date, the NRP has supported six RIS, which are represented locally by agencies.