The Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse has announced the flagship topic for the 2024 call for proposals. It is “Artificial Intelligence in Life Sciences with a Focus on Human Health”. AI has already generated innovations in key areas of human medicine. The agency mentions that AI is leading the way in areas including drug research, genomic data analysis, precision medicine and personalised medicine. It is also already being used profitably in multimodal large language models and protein language models.

As AI is expected to have a significant impact on all economic and societal sectors, writes Innosuisse in its call for proposals, “it is crucial that Swiss companies and universities strengthen their leading position in innovation”. This will enable Switzerland to pursue its key role in important sectors with high added value such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical technology, diagnostics and patient monitoring and management solutions, it explains.

With its interdisciplinary approach, says Innosuisse, the flagship initiative has the ability to generate systemic innovations. The solutions developed must have a decisive impact and be accepted by society and the economy, it continues. This means that the social, legal and regulatory aspects cannot be neglected.

Innosuisse is calling for submissions of pre-proposals from consortia of research institutes, startup companies and established industrial companies from the close-knit Swiss AI ecosystem by 12 November. On 29 August, Innosuisse will host a webinar to answer questions. In July 2025, the Innosuisse Innovation Council will announce the decision on the consortia to be funded.

Innosuisse is an innovation partner of the Open-i innovation conference being held in Switzerland in November. As part of the event in Zurich, the agency will be organising a deep-dive session on the topic of social entrepreneurship. Open-i describes itself as a Swiss innovation community and dialogue platform for the economy and the science sector. Open-i is organised by NZZ Connect, a branch of the NZZ based in Bern. Tickets are available now. ce/mm