Innovation
At the CYD Campus, we identify emerging digital trends early on, help translate the latest scientific findings into practical solutions, and implement them in operational settings. By connecting the federal administration, the armed forces, academia, and industry, we create a dynamic network of expertise that strengthens technological innovation and sovereignty. Through targeted research programs, startup challenges, proof-of-concept projects, and real-world test environments, we help transform new technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, secure systems, and secure communication networks into concrete capabilities for Switzerland’s security.
Innovation Requires New Processes
The time it takes for innovations to spread is getting shorter. It took the telephone 50 years to reach a penetration rate of over 70% in the population. The cell phone only took about five years. This requires faster processes. But the existing structures and processes at many organisations are not made for this.
The CYD Campus is organized as an innovation hub that can try things out quickly. What works gets transfered to the public administration. And if the new innovations fail, at least they failed early and cost only little money.
Our innovation vehicles are in the form of:
- Challenges: solution finding through open competitions (e.g. startup challenges)
- Boosters: acceleration of solution development
- Idea labs: collaborative solution development e.g., hackathons, startup jams
- Sandboxes: e.g., testing solutions in cyberdefence exercises
- Test runs: testing solutions in a testbed