Gebert Rüf Foundation
The Gebert Rüf Foundation was founded in 1997 by the entrepreneur Heinrich Gebert (1917–2007) as a science and innovation foundation with starting capital of CHF 220 million. Its aim is to strengthen “Switzerland as an economic and living space” (purpose article). As a private funding agency, it supports entrepreneurial and impact-based projects in accordance with its motto “Science.Move”.
Since its establishment, the foundation has approved over 1,000 projects and released a total of CHF 240 million, of which CHF 217 million was invested in direct project funding (as of April 30, 2020).
aims
The Gebert Rüf Foundation is committed to the entrepreneurial vision of its founder. According to its mission statement, it promotes innovation for the benefit of the Swiss economy and society. With an annual budget of CHF 15 million, it enables entrepreneurial science and educational projects to be implemented.
organization
The Gebert Rüf Foundation is headed by an interdisciplinary board of trustees whose members are elected for four years (age limit 72). Socially committed personalities from education, research and innovation are appointed to the Board of Trustees. Roland Siegwart (Professor for “Autonomous Systems”, ETH Zurich; Co-Director of Wyss Zurich) is currently President, Monika Bütler (Director of the Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research at the University of St. Gallen) is Vice-President . The operational activity is the responsibility of the office. It consists of five employees and is headed by the director Pascale Vonmont.
The foundation is independent of political, ideological and economic interests. It is based on the Swiss Foundation Code, the international benchmark for good foundation management.
activities
The Gebert Rüf Foundation has been managing the gap between basic research and the market since its inception. It positions itself in the so-called “Valley of Tears”, where the funding chain is broken for many innovative projects, no more research funds are available and no venture capital is yet in sight. With the "pilot funding", this funding gap was managed from 1998 to 2018 with a total of CHF 70 million. This open-topic funding vessel addressed innovative and nationwide relevant projects with a proven pilot character. With the launch of the BRIDGE funding program jointly run by the SNSF and Innosuisse, this gap was closed after 20 years. The foundation has achieved its goal in this regard.
In order to continue to achieve sustainable effects with its funding activities, the Gebert Rüf Foundation relies on a funding strategy based on fields of action. She regularly launches new topics.
The ten current fields of action are grouped into four target areas and together form the medium-term funding cluster of the Gebert Rüf Foundation. In doing so, it does not proceed in isolation, but rather networks its activities with each other and in a series of project partnerships, with which it wants to achieve greater effectiveness in its funding activities.
- Science & Entrepreneurship: How can science be effective in practice, society, economy?
- Education & Entrepreneurship: How can new forms of education and teaching be implemented in the digital age?
- Science & the public: How can the resonance of science reach wider societal dimensions?
- Foundation & Switzerland: How can Switzerland as a foundation location develop robustly in the combination of liberal, legal framework conditions and performance orientation?
In the “Science & Entrepreneurship” funding area, the Gebert Rüf Foundation has launched and networked key initiatives over the past 20 years: These include, in particular, NETS (now CTI Entrepreneurship and Venture Leaders) and Venture Kick.
effect
The foundation took 20 years of funding activity between 1998 and 2018 as an opportunity to ask all funding partners about the results and impact of GRS funding - and this in relation to the foundation's core criteria: gap function, effectiveness, triggering. The following compilation is a synthesis of the evaluation of approx. 70 percent of all completed projects, updated at the end of 2019; Projects in specific fields of action were evaluated separately and as a whole.
Projects have to ...
... 94 percent closed a decisive innovation gap, of which 71 percent related to innovation and 79 percent related to impetus.
... 65 percent created a new product.
... 29 percent led to the founding of a startup.
... 73 percent founded a new partnership. 47 percent of the projects have entered into a partnership with industry, 32 percent with service providers and 67 percent with the public sector.
Leverage effect: The completed projects supported by the foundation with a total of CHF 217 million were able to trigger further financing totaling CHF 6'724 million.