Flagship Get Together 2026

1a Maike Scherrer, Flagships SmartUMH & Circulus

Flagship Survival Guide. Lessons, Leaps, and Pitfalls

Compared to traditional Innosuisse-funded projects, flagship projects are characterised by longer durations, larger consortia and often additional stakeholders. These groups must be coordinated efficiently, collaborative work must be enabled in interdisciplinary teams, and it must be ensured that all information flows in sufficient breadth and depth.

The aim of the planned session is to exchange experiences, share tips and tricks, but also to highlight negative examples to prevent other consortia from falling into the same traps. At the end, successful practices should be derived from previous experiences and prepared in such a way that they can be shared with other flagship consortia, not participating in this session.

1b SwissSTES

1c Salvatore Oricchio, Flagship Green Energy Hub

Navigating Flagships to Success: From Ambition to Impact

What does it mean to be a Flagship project in practice, and how does it differ from a standard Innosuisse project? This breakout session explores the defining characteristics of Flagships, including their systemic ambition, expected impact and implementation complexity. Participants will discuss key challenges in managing large, multi-stakeholder projects, integrating new ideas and emerging technologies, and balancing innovation with pragmatism under tight constraints. The session also reflects on financial and sustainability aspects, focusing on how Flagship initiatives can create long-term value and impact beyond their funding period.

1d Didier Saint Pierre, Flagship WISER

Bridging transdisciplinary stakeholders: challenges and strategies for sustainable collaboration

Flagships are composed of many stakeholders from the public and private sectors, all engaged in R&D activities across diverse perspectives. The time horizons are often mismatched, the goals of projects may be interpreted differently, and a project plan spanning many years can only go so far, given the rapid changes in industrial needs and topics of interest for researchers. It is easy to see that good communication is a critical tool for addressing such challenges of transdisciplinary collaboration, but what does that mean in the everyday work for Flagships' managers? The goal of this session will be to invite all participants to share examples of key struggles and the strategies they have developed for collaboration, with the aim of identifying solutions that could be useful to others. We will also share specific stories from WISER, given that the core goal is to develop digital bridges between GHG assessment data and tools to ensure more reliable collaborations.

2a Maike Scherrer, Flagships SmartUMH & Circulus: Flagship Survival Guide. Lessons, Leaps, and Pitfalls

Compared to traditional Innosuisse-funded projects, flagship projects are characterised by longer durations, larger consortia and often additional stakeholders. These groups must be coordinated efficiently, collaborative work must be enabled in interdisciplinary teams, and it must be ensured that all information flows in sufficient breadth and depth.

The aim of the planned session is to exchange experiences, share tips and tricks, but also to highlight negative examples to prevent other consortia from falling into the same traps. At the end, successful practices should be derived from previous experiences and prepared in such a way that they can be shared with other flagship consortia, not participating in this session.

2b SwissSTES

2c Salvatore Oricchio .Flagship Green Energy Hub: Navigating Flagships to Success: From Ambition to Impact

What does it mean to be a Flagship project in practice, and how does it differ from a standard Innosuisse project? This breakout session explores the defining characteristics of Flagships, including their systemic ambition, expected impact and implementation complexity. Participants will discuss key challenges in managing large, multi-stakeholder projects, integrating new ideas and emerging technologies, and balancing innovation with pragmatism under tight constraints. The session also reflects on financial and sustainability aspects, focusing on how Flagship initiatives can create long-term value and impact beyond their funding period.

2d Didier Saint Pierre, Flagship WISER : Bridging transdisciplinary stakeholders: challenges and strategies for sustainable collaboration

Flagships are composed of many stakeholders from the public and private sectors, all engaged in R&D activities across diverse perspectives. The time horizons are often mismatched, the goals of projects may be interpreted differently, and a project plan spanning many years can only go so far, given the rapid changes in industrial needs and topics of interest for researchers. It is easy to see that good communication is a critical tool for addressing such challenges of transdisciplinary collaboration, but what does that mean in the everyday work for Flagships' managers? The goal of this session will be to invite all participants to share examples of key struggles and the strategies they have developed for collaboration, with the aim of identifying solutions that could be useful to others. We will also share specific stories from WISER, given that the core goal is to develop digital bridges between GHG assessment data and tools to ensure more reliable collaborations.