Public support for product innovation in Swiss agriculture: A historical impact analysis

In the previous phase of NCCR Trade, we compared the agricultural sectors of New Zealand and Switzerland and concluded that trade liberalization combined with investment in product innovation and entrepreneurship had helped New Zealand to reconcile the economic, social and environmental dimension of sustainable change in agriculture. The objective of this research project is to investigate the share of Swiss public sector agricultural R&D that goes into product innovation. For this purpose, we will first divide R&D projects according to whether they are policy-related, environment-related, monitoring-related, agronomy-related or innovation-related research activities. Within the innovation-related component we will look separately at innovation in a subsidized niche segment, and product and service innovation with strong commercial viability (meaning export potential). In addition, we will look at the impact of non-rival ideas developed at the agricultural research institutes in terms of domestic and international resonance. The goal is to find out how to make the Swiss farming sector more innovative and entrepreneurial through more economic incentives for farmers to participate in the R&D process and generally increase support for R&D design for commercially viable product innovation. This may help improve the attitude of farmers and consumers towards the global knowledge economy and international trade.