Innovation agencies

KTI: SMEs benefit from subsidies
Switzerland promotes technology transfer on a number of levels, particularly in up-and-coming areas such as nanotechnology. The state-run innovation agency KTI has designated micro- and nanotechnology as a top priority along with life sciences, enabling sciences and engineering. Three-quarters of subsidies are now granted to small and medium-sized enterprises: at the end of the 1990s, the proportion was the opposite, in favour of the large corporations. In principle, KTI expects that research projects should be financed 50:50 by its partners from the private sector – a tried and tested reality check for market-oriented innovations.
With KTI, «official» Switzerland aims to compensate for a weakness in its scientific policy: the inadequate conversion of outstanding research results into marketable products. The programming language Pascal developed at the ETH Zürich in 1970 was marketed by Apple and Commodore. Lilith, the superior personal computer developed in 1977 by the ETH Zürich, resulted in Logitech (computer mice). The patents for the quartz watch were sold to the United States and later ended up in Japan. Liquid crystals and LCD displays were developed at Hoffmann-La Roche and BBC, but these projects were not pursued.

At the decisive interface: Technopark
Institutions such as the Technopark Zürich, which has created more than 2,000 sustainable jobs since it was founded in 1993, are situated at the interface between theory and practice. Today, 230 innovative, growing companies are located in the Technopark, including unassuming but incredible success stories: Flisom, for example, with its flexible, extreme light solar cells that transform light into electricity – with world-record efficiency. This solar cell technology is predestined to produce electrical energy at extremely low cost and to play a key role in the global mass market. Or AutoForm: within ten years it has become the world’s leading supplier to the sheet metal forming industry. The small company has branches in 14 countries. The introduction of rapid process simulation and specialised tool modelling have fundamentally revolutionised working processes in tool construction. The new software solutions not only drastically cut working time and costs, but also optimise material utilisation and improve quality. All the world’s car manufacturers are clients with AutoForm.
The most resourceful trend scouts for technology development have now also snapped up the bait. In the spring of 2006, Red Herring, the world’s leading media company for technology information, market research and the organiser of prominent industry forums, moved its European headquarters to Zürich. The flexible labour laws for foreign employees in Switzerland, which is not an EU country, are an important incentive for global companies with multinational workforces. The low social and non-wage costs as well as the attractive tax climate in the City and Canton of Zürich were important factors in Red Herring’s choice of location. The city’s outstanding IT infrastructure and the close links between the high-tech industry and the universities in Zürich and the region also swayed the company’s decision in favour of Zürich.


Source: http://euro.zuerich.com