Sport in federally-funded Research and Innovation in Switzerland – An Update on the Status Quo

Abstract

Introduction: In Switzerland, approximately CHF 25.9 Mrd. (3.2% of its GDP) were spent on research, development and innovation in 2023 (Körsgen et al., 2025), which is an increase of 1.3 Mrd. and a decrease of 0.2% in GDP relation compared to 2021 (Körsgen et al., 2023). The general publication of the FSO does not differentiate research and innovation in sports as a separate category. Due to the low ranking of Switzerland in an international comparison (Kempf; et al., 2021), a first analysis of publicly funded research and innovation projects in 2021 has revealed quantitative and qualitative insights. The analysis revealed a total funding of CHF 5 Mio by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and 1.5 Mio by Innosuisse, were most funding was received by sports medicine project (Kempf et al., 2025). In order to provide a longitudinal comparison, this analysis was now replicated for the year 2023.

Methods: The semantic keyword-based search from the analysis of data from 2022 was replicated from the previous analysis (Kempf et al., 2025), searching the project database of SNSF, and ARAMIS, a database containing all research and innovation projects funded or executed by the Swiss federal government. In addition, further variables were analyzed to provide a broader view on the status quo on publicly funded research and innovation in Swiss sport.

Results: While the analysis is still in progress, currently available data does not show largely different results between the years 2022 and 2023. Already analyzed projects confirm the results of 2022 with a large part of research and innovation funding received by sports medicine projects. Regarding institutions involved, multiple research and innovation facilities were identified, which had not been present in the data of 2022. Non-profit sports organizations like clubs or (inter)national federations are not part of them.

Discussion/Conclusion: While the final results are not available as of now, it can be stated that frequent and objective monitoring of research and innovation data in sports is helpful for policy makers in public and private sports. The results of this investigation allow a longitudinal comparison over multiple years. With recently introduced measures on innovation by Swiss Olympic and the Federal Office of Sport FOSPO, the upcoming changes to the federation support model by Swiss Olympic and the upcoming measures triggered by the federal strategy “Sports- and Physical Activity Promotion 2040”, the results from this analysis can help to identify potential positive and negative impacts on research and innovation in Swiss sports, as well as it’s representation in the general national innovation system of Switzerland. In addition, further investigations on privately funded research and innovation projects in sports are necessary to provide a holistic perspective.

References

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Körsgen, A., Chardon, S. P., & Sollberger, P. (2023). Forschung und Entwicklung in der Schweiz 2021. B. f. Statistik. https://dam-api.bfs.admin.ch/hub/api/dam/assets/24905944/master

Körsgen, A., Plaza Chardon, S., & Sollberger, P. (2025). Forschung und Entwicklung in der Schweiz 2023. Bundesamt für Statistik. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.71668/qdr9-sc23