Open innovation program
A federal open innovation program, co-funded by Innosuisse and led by Dagorà, that turns the sector's challenges into radical new ideas.
The program
The Innovation Booster program is a federal open innovation program, co-funded by Innosuisse, to promote radical innovation for operational, technological and social transformations in Switzerland, serving various sectors, including fashion, beauty, sportswear, luxury and lifestyle.
The program aims to co-create projects and initiatives by promoting collaboration between two types of partners: on one hand, Swiss research institutes and the academic sector favouring technological transfer, and on the other, national and international companies, associations, NGOs and end-users.
Dagorà's role
Dagorà Lifestyle Innovation Hub is functioning as leading house and managing the first Innovation Booster initiative in Ticino. Leveraging an extensive community and network of C-level decision makers, the Innovation Booster Fashion & Lifestyle creates a unique ecosystem enabling the dissemination of radical solutions to the challenges of the sector.
The main objective is to provide a joint and innovative response to economic challenges. Dagorà Lifestyle Innovation Hub is the program reference: it manages workshop activities and scouting, and coordinates a qualified jury that selects the innovative ideas and teams to be financed.
The first three years
Among the awarded Swiss universities and research institutes:
Objectives
The program identifies and analyses open innovation challenges in fashion, beauty, sportswear, luxury and lifestyle, on topics such as sustainable technologies, artificial intelligence applied to fashion, innovative materials, digitalization and more.
The Innovation Booster encourages significant collaborations among Swiss research institutes and academies, entrepreneurs, investors, and national and international end-users.
The program funds up to 10 Innovation Teams each year, with a maximum of CHF 28,000 for each approved idea. The idea should lead to the conception of radical solutions (first phase) that will then be tested (second phase).
How it works
Phase 1
Industry experts discuss and identify the key themes and challenges for the Fashion & Lifestyle community.
Phase 2
The Innovation Booster opens a call focused on the challenges identified during the Industry Workshop.
Phase 3
Members of the community submit an industry challenge to co-create a radical idea.
Phase 4
In a design thinking workshop, participants explore the problems, form Innovation Teams and co-create new radical ideas with the support of experts.
Phase 5
Innovation Teams pitch their ideas and a qualified jury decides which projects receive funding.
Phase 6
Awarded Innovation Teams execute their project, share results and lessons learned, and evaluate next steps.
Take part
The Innovation Booster Fashion & Lifestyle invites companies, researchers, startups, associations, experts and innovators to submit sector-relevant challenges that can inspire the co-creation of radical ideas for the Swiss Fashion & Lifestyle ecosystem.
The program is designed to identify urgent and emerging market needs, bring together interdisciplinary stakeholders, and transform key industry challenges into new opportunities for innovation. Through an open and user-centric process, the most promising ideas can evolve into Innovation Teams and be further tested for desirability, viability and feasibility.
Sponsors
Their involvement can propel groundbreaking ideas into reality, shaping the future of the Fashion & Lifestyle sector.
Agenda
EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
Selected teams are invited to a collaborative workshop to refine their innovation hypotheses. This stage focuses on problem exploration and solution co-creation with the support of a dedicated expert network.
EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
During the Pitch Day, Innovation Teams showcase their hypotheses to an expert Jury for the selection of projects eligible for financial support.
Photos © DigitalFlow.ch
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