The Programme

Companies purchase a research ticket in a chosen thematic area. One ticket costs CHF 75’000 per year, with a three year commitment required. Tickets are generally sold as a whole ticket although up to three companies may join together to purchase a ticket. Each ticket sold receives double matching funds from CCMX (CHF 150’000 per year).

When a company purchases a ticket, it is requested to name up to three representatives whose role is essentially to participate in project meetings, to select the research projects following peer review from external experts and to vote on whether or not to accept new companies to the Research Ticket Programme in the chosen thematic area.

The creation of new thematic areas is an on-going process which can be initiated by CCMX or by industry. Thematic areas are selected through brainstorm sessions that cover specific chosen fields. These sessions are attended by interested companies positioned along the value chain and by identified researchers with competencies in the field. The main goal of these sessions is to identify the industry’s recurrent needs and the solutions that researchers can bring.

Once a new thematic area has been identified, industry is invited to confirm its interest by providing letters of expression of interest. Once these are received, a Call for Proposals is launched.

Below is the timeline following the launch of the Call for Proposals:

0:

Launch of the Call for Proposals (published on the CCMX website and emailed to the researchers of the 5 CCMX founding institutions).

+2 Months:

Submission of outline proposals. Letters of intent from industry, confirming their intention to fund research via the purchase of full or partial tickets, must be submitted along with the outline proposals for them to be considered.

+2.5 Months:

Feedback on outline proposals is given to the Principal Investigator by the Education & Research Unit Director.

+3.5 Months:

Deadline for submission of full proposals.

+4.5 Months:

Final decision on project approval is made. Each company that provided a letter of intent is invited to sign the Industrial Grant Agreement with CCMX in order to formalize its support to the selected thematic area.

+5.5 Months:

Earliest start date of projects. Industrial Grant Agreements (industry-CCMX) and Thematic Area Project Contract (Academic partners-CCMX) must be signed before a project can start. Companies are invoiced for their first contribution after the Industrial Grant Agreement has been signed.

Please see PDF below for more details on the Research Ticket Programme.