How to create successful partnerships between high-growth start-ups and established organisations? We address this topic in a handbook we published in collaboration with Kickstart and other top-class contributors from ETH Zurich, University of Zurich, University of St. Gallen and Swisscom for the Kickstart Accelerator Program. Our objective is to jointly promote this crucial topic of partnerships between corporates, start-ups and academia and to provide examples of how to approach this topic.
It is important to emphasize that digitalswitzerland is one of many crucial players enabling innovation in Switzerland. The momentum is tremendous due to the many organizations driving technology in our country. digitalswitzerland has an important role to play with a strong network and a focus on delivering concrete projects that enable innovation. We’re a platform that connects and engages politicians, academics, corporates, SMEs, start-ups and digital shapers to drive digital transformation across the country. We have over 20 projects that cover areas like the Politico-Economic Environment, Education & Talent, Start-up Enablement, Corporate Enablement, Public Dialogue and International Connectivity as well as industry-focused projects. Leaders from across business, government and academia are actively involved in our Steering Committee and Executive Committee.
Some success stories of multi-stakeholder collaboration to deliver impact:
- The Kraftwerk innovation and collaboration space is an exceptional joint venture between EWZ, Migros Engagement, Impact Hub Zurich and digitalswitzerland.
- The Challenges are collaborative projects that we organize to transform innovative concepts into action. We have 20 ongoing challenges with more than 70 institutions working together.
- We are building partnerships with Présence Suisse, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Innosuisse, SEFRI, Swissnex, and other organisations to promote Swiss-made innovation and technology abroad. One example of our joint collaboration is our presence at CES in Las Vegas in January 2019, the largest global tech conference.
- We are also ramping up the Swiss Accelerator Network across the country with over 10 accelerators participating in the programme. They collaborate to reinforce Switzerland’s position as a global Accelerator Hub. It is very exciting to see competitors joining forces in the spirit of co-opetition!
These are just a few examples of our collaboration projects. Our journey after three years is only just starting and we expect to see further growth and even more impact in the coming years, in particular by building on our established partnerships and creating new ones for the future.
