Contract R&D is our designation for strategic research and development projects in which we focus on the early phase in the life-cycle of an industrial product – in other words, the phase between the idea and the functional prototype – and on the development of new methods and design tools. This is where a so-called "Quantum Leap" is needed, and this is where products, tools and methods are invented for the long-term future.
Many of our customers have concluded a special Framework Development Agreement with us, ensuring a sound basis of trust over the longer term. Contract R&D projects are planned and implemented in close cooperation with our customers, and they are usually interdisciplinary: both we and our customers contribute competencies to the project in numerous technological fields.
Projects of this sort mainly come into being when customers deliberately want to force R&D partnerships on the basis of their technology portfolios, so that they can use product innovations to pursue a growth strategy.
Here are some more typical characteristics of Contract R&D projects:
- the envisaged objective is only defined in loose terms;
- approaches and methods are only known in part;
- the technical risk is high at the start of the project;
- the project duration ranges from months to years;
- experience shows that the project volume is in the range above CHF 100’000, and it is financed from a (strategic) development budget;
- high levels of confidentiality are required.
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