CTI is the Confederation's Innovation Promotion Agency. For the past sixty years, it has fostered knowledge and technology transfer between companies and universities by bringing them together as partners on applied research and development projects. CTI also provides assistance to start-up companies.
Goal of the CTI is to generate more innovations out of co-operations between business and academia. Each year CTI supports several hundred projects in applied research and development (R&D) executed in collaboration between companies and universities. Businesses – above all small and medium-sized companies – are thus supported in leveraging the R&D resources of the universities for their innovations and they support scientists in universities to bring out the results of their research, in conjunction with companies, onto the market, in the form of competitive products and services.
The R&D promotion of CTI is of lasting benefit for the economy. It now has a proven track record going back over 60 years. In 2007 alone, exactly 277 projects were supported. These projects led to R&D revenues of 217 million Swiss francs. Almost 60% or over 128 million of this revenue was funded by the economy. Business partners matched every Swiss franc invested by CTI with an additional 1.4 Swiss francs. That shows a considerable leverage effect. For the period 2008 to 2011 the CTI budget amounts to some CHF 532 millions.

Ticinotransfer is the network for the transfer of technology and knowledge within the Italian-speaking regions of Switzerland. It connects small or medium-sized companies that are innovative – or wish to become so – to the technological partners, namely the research institutes.
Ticinotransfer offers to the research institutes and to the companies a point of contact for the transfer of technology and knowledge, and provides specific services to accompany the innovation processes that occur among these partners.

The European Commission with its Framework Programs (presently the 7th) contributes significantly to the cooperation among accademic and industrial partners in the european region.
Switzerland is a full member of these Framework Programs. ICIMSI is leader of some of these projects and partner in many other and it helps the companies of the region and Swiss to develop new product, new processes, new methodologies and technologies in the area of its own competences integrating and acquiring knowledge from the other partners. To take part in a european or international project means to invest x and to gain nx where n can also reach 10 or 15!

SNSF is one of the two public funding agencies in Switzerland. SNSF is mainly oriented to fundamental research and helps research particularly in the two federal polytechnical schools and the cantonal universities.
Recently also the UAS can access to these funds and ICIMSI is starting to enter these funding mechanisms that require not only an high scientific level but also an important networking with other swiss research institutions.