On the way to a climate-friendly Switzerland, the Innovation Booster Future Urban Society is helping the most promising eco-social innovations in the niche. The central question: How can the most promising approaches for climate-friendly living in urban areas in Switzerland be strengthened and further mainstreamed?
Accordingly, radically new ideas for mainstreaming the best concepts in the interlocking areas of housing, mobility and food are being promoted and developed. Existing local and regional initiatives are brought together and developed — in a new alliance between civil society, administration, research and industry. Improved networking and organization creates collective capacity for action and innovative strength. The Innovation Booster FUS thus enables the Swiss community for eco-social innovation to pool its resources and concentrate its efforts.

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The booster focuses on three areas, which are often directly linked, which have great leverage when it comes to the major societal challenges of the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity and the energy transition:

Urban food production and consumption, new forms of mobility, and the overarching theme of living.

Life in urban areas in Switzerland is fundamentally changing. The term “Future Urban Society” serves as a horizon for innovations that enable and accompany the transformation of our everyday ways of living, being mobile and feeding us. Under this premise, technological developments or new forms of organization are understood as ingredients for a transformation of social living conditions. So that a good life within planetary limits will be possible for everyone in Switzerland.

In a rapidly changing world, Innosuisse, as the Federal Agency for Innovation, uses the “Innovation Booster” instrument broad understanding of innovation. What distinguishes all booster programs is the fundamentally open and collaborative approach, which invites civil society, the business and research world, as well as politics and administration, through open innovation to develop radical ideas. Open innovation means both the joint exploration of problems and challenges as well as the joint search for new solutions. Specially radical ideas, i.e. approaches that get to the bottom of things (Latin radix = root) and not just do cosmetics — contrary to prohibitions of thought!

What also shapes the Innovation Booster Future Urban Society is the focus on so-called”social innovations”, in the context of climate crisis, loss of biodiversity and energy transition we call them”eco-social innovations”. Social innovation is the umbrella term for new entrepreneurial and civil society approaches that focus on the sustainable transformation of social practices. The starting and end point is not a single product, but the way we live, feed and are mobile.

The Innovation Booster FUS is not a so-called “incubator”, i.e. not an “early intervention” for social innovations in the areas of housing, mobility and nutrition. New ideas are not primarily sought after. There are many good approaches, and we want to work with everyone involved to find out what is needed to build on existing solutions, develop them further and (re)strengthen them. For this process, we need radically new ideas and new types of cooperation between civil society, administration, research and industry.

The jury consists of various actors who have knowledge of the challenges being worked on. It is put together heterogeneously. Once we have all the final commitments, we'll list them on the About Us page under “Jury.” If a jury member has a conflict of interest with a team member or idea, that person will not comment on it. The criteria are set out in the Challenge/Open Call listed (see Idea Submission Guidelines document).

No as long as the idea has to do with or has an impact on the city and region of the city of Zurich, it is sufficient. Important, it must be a legal entity and the funds must flow into an account owned by a Swiss legal entity.

No, there are no mandatory daily rates. Teams can decide for themselves whether to work with daily rates or with other calculation methods.

Yes that is fully “in Scope”. We are looking forward to your input.

Innovation teams can include international partners whose support is necessary for the successful testing and verification of an idea. However, as the IB instrument should primarily benefit the Swiss economy and society, the following conditions apply:
1) We have to award and release the innovation team funding to a Swiss beneficiary

2) At least one Swiss implementation partner must be part of every innovation team and the main value creation must occur in Switzerland.

Yes, as long as the guidelines are followed, this is possible.

They must first follow the guidelines (linked on the page of the respective call) and then they will be rated based on the following criteria:

• radicality: How convincingly does the project address a problem at the root?
• Impact potential: How much does the project contribute to climate-friendly living in urban areas in Switzerland (including social added value)?
• amplification potential: How well is it argued how the project enhances impact? Or to put it casually: Is it a project that can set a course and/or does it use a small lever with a big effect?
• Goal orientation - How well are the planned activities coordinated with the project goals/hypotheses? Is funding being used effectively?
• Team composition: Required skills, experience, diversity and inclusivity: Is the team convincing?‍
• Quality of the application: How convincing are the application documents?

All criteria are weighted equally. A maximum of 6 points can be achieved per category. The Swiss grading system is used as an analogy.

6 = very good, completely exceeded expectations

5 = good, partly exceeded

4 = sufficient, everything fulfilled, nothing stands out

3 = insufficient, partly fulfilled

2 = weak, only slightly or barely fulfilled

1 = very weak, clearly not fulfilled

The duration varies depending on the challenges. You can see the exact details on the page of respective calls.

As a national program with a regional character, we work closely with various cities and municipalities. The participating municipalities and cities, mostly as part of their net-zero missions, are interested in promoting the most ecologically and socially promising innovations — for a climate-friendly future. Accordingly, they act as enablers and, in some cases, implementation partners. Cities and municipalities offer important ingredients for strengthening and disseminating social innovations: spaces and testing opportunities, communication channels and reach, access to potential users or participants, financial resources, legitimacy, etc. It is part of the joint learning process to find out together how administration and/or politics can have a strengthening effect.

We are always happy to hear about exciting approaches. Basically, a solution must be generated or further developed as part of the Challenge Stage and its events. For an application to be evaluated by the jury, there must be a point of contact with research. We can help you find scientific support.

Networking and matchmaking take place at official events. On request, we can also act as a mediator and network. Contact us for this via matchmaking@futureurbansociety.ch.

See Idea Submissions Guidelines document in the respective tenders.

We seek and promote radical ideas to further disseminate or strengthen the most promising approaches to climate-friendly living, mobility and nutrition. With the involvement of civil society, business, administration and/or politics, the aim is to integrate and interlink approaches across topics and contexts. The spectrum of possible approaches ranges from new or radically advanced offers and services to organizational forms, business and impact models to communication and intervention strategies as part of strategic experiments.

The funding of up to 25,000 CHF can be used specifically for feasibility, usage or market studies. Where possible and useful, the development of models and prototypes is financed to illustrate and test solutions. The funds can be used flexibly as appropriate, e.g. for payment of salaries, the purchase of equipment and materials, observational and interview research, travel expenses, organization of round tables, workshops, etc.

Some of the funds are reserved for substantive and methodological support from experts in the respective fields.

Up to CHF 25,000, including vouchers for expert advice and coaching.

• Do you come up with ideas from practice or research and are looking for implementation and facilitation partners? All applying innovation teams can be contacted via the Jointcreate platform. We are happy to facilitate matchmaking.
• Are you a municipal service department, a company or an NPO with a challenge in our area and are interested in increasing the impact of the best approaches? Then you have two options: If challenges have already been advertised, participating in the booster gives you access to the most promising social innovations. In Booster, you can work together to implement the best ideas for perpetuating, developing and disseminating these approaches. In consultation with us, you can also publish a challenge yourself and act as a “challenge sponsor”. In doing so, you start an open innovation process on the topics of your choice and work with the applying teams on the best ideas for solving your challenge. Feel free to contact us via info@futureurbansociety.ch.
• We organize and carry out an open innovation process for you from A-Z, including the moderation of workshops and events
• You will receive financial support to develop and test your ideas developed together with other actors as part of the booster

Legal entities, as associations, non-profit organizations, start-ups, SMEs or large companies, (student) research teams, cities, cantons or persons who feel addressed by one of the advertised challenges and, together with other actors, develop radical solutions for the dissemination of a promising approach. Starting points can be products, services, processes, organizational forms or business models. Prerequisites:

• Involvement of at least one other actor along the value chain and implementation chain so that the approach can be sustainable in the medium term;
• Willingness to work openly and share ideas on an equal footing
• The intention to implement the Booster Program solution in Switzerland and beyond

In order to make the overarching social challenges workable, we break them down into individual challenges. In consultation with our city partners and social innovators, this creates acute issues that serve to actively involve different stakeholders, promote partnerships and cooperation, identify best practices and ultimately promote radical ideas for strengthening and disseminating social innovations.

In the 2024-2025 pilot round in Zurich, we can do two in the context of the overarching challenges of housing, mobility and food specific challenges carry out; this means that there are two questions that serve as a starting point for developing innovative approaches:

Challenge 1: Climate-friendly living in urban areas

How is climate-friendly living possible in urban areas? We are looking for promising existing approaches and new ideas that can be implemented promptly, accessible to many people and affordable. The effectiveness of these should be reinforced and multiplied.

Challenge 2: The cycle of things

How could we make it more attractive for the general public to keep or give away household items and clothing than to dispose of them or buy new ones? How could we ‘strengthen’ the existing, already promising initiatives, services and offers for sharing, passing on, reselling and repairing things?

With the (remote) goal of mainstreaming, we in the Booster rely centrally on innovations, that amplify existing approaches. With this core term, we in the FUS Booster would like to look at the distribution logics of social innovation. Accordingly, the key question is: How could we create promising approaches...

1. strengthening their networking?
2. help to strengthenig to grow, replicate, or otherwise spread?
3. and strengthen their systemic effect per se?

Step 1: Login to jointcreate

The first step is to register on the jointcreate.com platform, which the Innovation Booster uses as a digital backbone. Create your own profile and complete it with your personal details.

Step 2: Join Innovation Room

Follow the Innovation Booster Future Urban Society on Joint Create and join the community

Step 3: Project tenders

After you have completed your profile, you can visit the Future Urban Society website to view the open tenders check and, if appropriate, submit your idea. Note the Idea Submissions Guidlines document in the respective calls.

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The exact time and deadlines can be found on the respective Challenges/Open Calls.

In addition to entering a) a clear statement of costs for us and b) a questionnaire completed at the end plus once a small final presentation.

It's realistic to assume that at least 90% can be worked on the content level.

We ourselves will organize a workshop day for all participants in October. After that, the support is as required (methodological/ expertise) and more individual.

In the Idea Stage, the selected teams work on new or radically advanced offers, services, organizational forms, business and impact models, communication and intervention strategies, or strategic experiments.

In a semi-structured process through workshops, online offers and helpful tools, initial solutions are developed into concrete, testable hypotheses and ideas. Supported by moderated exchange with other teams and individual content and methodological support, the teams go through effective experience and learning processes. This is how feasibility, user or market studies are created or models and prototypes are developed which serve to illustrate innovative ideas and test solutions.