Ypsomed Innovation Award

Objective

The Ypsomed Innovation Award aims to motivate innovative and entrepreneurial teams or individuals to include market needs in their scientific work and to translate their developments into products or services on the market. The work presented should therefore contain innovative and economically feasible processes, methods, products or services.

Prizes and prize money

The Ypsomed Innovation Award is endowed as follows:

1st prize: CHF 50,000.

and CHF 25,000 each to two further projects.

Projects

Projects that can be submitted are products, services, own innovations, doctoral and diploma theses as well as project and semester papers in German, French or English.

Content

Personal information about the author and the team members
Problem statement
Summary of the work accomplished
Discussion of the technical realisation potential
Proof of economic viability

Evaluation criteria

Innovation potential and originality
Market implementation potential
Technical realisation potential
Comprehensibility of the dossier
Team

Application

Apply for the Ypsomed Innovation Award with your project.

Admission:

The innovation presented must have been predominantly developed at a university and must meet the objectives of the award donor. Students, assistants, lecturers as well as research and work teams of universities based in the capital regions with the urge to become entrepreneurs or newly founded companies which have emerged from this environment and would like to implement a new project are invited to participate.

The Ypsomed Innovation Award can also be awarded to a consortium that shows how an extraordinary output has been achieved collectively.

You can submit your application until October 12, 2026.

Submit your project

Jury

The jury evaluates the submitted work and selects the winners. The jury’s deliberations are confidential.

Prof. Dr. Artur Baldauf, Director Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at University of Berne (Chair)
Regula Buob, CEO and founder SoftTec Buob
Jens Krauss, Vice President Medtech, CSEM SA Berne
Dr. Valeria Mozzetti, Head of Knowledge and Technology Transfer, University Fribourg
Cordelia Trümpy, Innovation & Communication Diabetes Center Berne
Prof. Dr. Raoul Waldburger, Director Bern University of Applied Sciences - School of Engineering and Computer Science, Biel
Sam Zürcher, Startup Founder of Ender Diagnostic

Selection procedure and award ceremony

The jury evaluates the project dossiers received. The authors of the short-listed projects will be invited to a presentation to the jury in November. Subsequently, the jury decides on the three winners and invites them to the award ceremony. The award ceremony takes place in January in Berne.

Decisions of the jury

The decisions of the jury are irrevocable. By registering for the competition, the participants unconditionally accept these regulations. Any legal action is precluded. Projects that have not been awarded a prize will be rejected without justification.

Confidentiality

There is absolute confidentiality regarding the projects submitted. Except for the joint communication during the award ceremony, all project content will be treated confidentially.

Award winners

The Ypsomed Innovation Award promotes innovations and entrepreneurial activities in the capital regions. With the prize money, the Ypsomed Innovation Award supports the step into independence or further growth steps. This is impressively demonstrated by examples of the recent years.

2025

Award ceremony at the EVENTfabrik Bern

The winners of the Ypsomed Innovation Award 2025 were honoured on 23 January 2025 at the EVENTfabrik Bern. First place went to Yuon Control AG. Xemperia and Santella also made it onto the winners' podium. The innovation prize, which is endowed with a total of CHF 100,000, was awarded by the Ypsomed Innovation Fund Foundation for the eleventh time.

Read the media release

We look back on the evening in the accompanying video.

Yuon Control AG

Yuon Control AG develops high-precision technologies and systems for building automation and energy management. With a focus on modern control and regulation technology, the company offers solutions based on advanced sensor, IoT1 and software platforms.

Yuon-control - Yuon

The accompanying video shows an interview with Dr Sebastian Hersberger from Yuon Control AG.

Xemperia

Xemperia is a spin-off project of the University of Fribourg and sets new standards in the early detection and monitoring of cancer, focussing on breast cancer in the submitted project. The company develops technologies that combine state-of-the-art molecular diagnostics with powerful data analysis and AI-supported pattern recognition.

The accompanying video shows an interview with Dr Sarah Cattin from Xemperia.

Santella

The start-up Santella specialises in the development of innovative vaccines to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. As part of the submitted project, the initial focus is on the development of vaccines for the poultry industry to promote animal health and minimise antibiotic treatments.

The accompanying video shows an interview with Sabrina Stöckli from Santella.