04  ·  PROGRAM SELECTION

How does your program
compare with the best
in Switzerland?

An independent ranking that documents your program's real impact — based on alumni feedback, track record, and substance. Four discipline rankings. NZZ-ZHAW validated. No fees.

Submit your program  → 🔒  Ranking available from October 2026

Free ~25 minutes  ·  You control what appears publicly

Methodology with ZHAW & NZZ · Evidence-based impact metrics · 45+ Swiss programs pre-listed

Are you in the right place?

Many Swiss organisations operate both a hub and one or several programs. To prevent double-counting and confusion, we make a clean cut between organisations and instruments.

Do you operate a physical location where startups work, or do cohorts gather under your brand?

→ HUB SELECTION
Yes, we are an organisation with a venue
You belong in Hub Selection. The Hub Selection evaluates your organisation as a whole, including any programs you run.
e.g. MassChallenge · Tenity · FONGIT · EPFL Innovation Park · Kickstart
→ YOU ARE HERE
No, we are a standalone funding instrument
Program Selection is right for you. You are evaluated as an instrument that founders apply to or are nominated for, independent of any hosting venue.
e.g. Venture Kick · de Vigier Award · Innosuisse Cheque · Botnar grants

Four disciplines, one methodology

Awards measure talent identification. Grants measure funding impact. Education measures learning effect. Foundation initiatives measure mission impact. Different functions need different yardsticks.

No cross-type comparison. A Diamond Award is a Diamond Award – not "better" or "worse" than a Diamond Grant. Both are at the top of their discipline.
💎
Grant & Voucher
FUNDING INSTRUMENTS
Application → cash, no hub infrastructure
Venture Kick · BRIDGE · Innogrant · Innovation Cheque
🏆
Awards & Competitions
TALENT RECOGNITION
Competition → prize for best performers
de Vigier · ZKB Pionier · Swiss Medtech · Top 100
🎓
Education & Training
SKILLS & LEARNING
Curriculum-based, learning-effect measured
Innosuisse Training · Venturelab · Startup Academy
🌍
Foundation & Impact
MISSION-DRIVEN
Climate · social · health initiatives
Botnar · KlimUp · ClimAccelerator · Innovation Booster

What you get out of it.

The Selection brings programs measurable advantages – not just "visibility". Here is what you actually receive.

Better-qualified applicants

Swiss founders filter by program type, funding range, and sector – and find you with intent. Better application quality, fewer off-topic submissions, less screening overhead.

→ Higher hit rate in your pipeline
Independent quality signal

A NZZ-ZHAW-validated Selection Status (Silver to Diamond) for funding applications to federal and cantonal bodies, sponsor acquisition, and stakeholder communication. Independent of self-reporting.

→ Differentiation among 45+ programs
Outcome data your board asks for

Funders increasingly demand outcome data, not just output. Aggregated alumni feedback gives you defensible evidence of programme impact – ready for re-funding rounds, donor reports, and political stakeholders.

→ Hard evidence for re-funding
A peer-benchmark report

Annual report with your position per dimension and concrete guidance: where you excel against comparable programs, and where there is improvement potential.

→ Data-driven program iteration

Your alumni voice –
the data your funders want.

Self-reports can be polished. Founder experiences cannot. We anonymously survey your alumni and weight their aggregated voice as the strongest dimension in your score – because that is the data quality that distinguishes evidence from marketing.

SHEET B SURVEY · ANONYMOUS · AGGREGATED
You list at least 8 alumni. We do the rest.
You list alumni from your last three cohorts (or for awards: the last three award years; for education: the last three training years). We send a discipline-specific survey, send reminders, and aggregate the results. You never see individual responses — only the aggregated score per dimension. Until 8 reviews come back, your profile stays in private "Provisional" mode — nothing is published without your consent.
8+
ALUMNI REVIEWS NEEDED
40%
SCORE WEIGHT
100%
ANONYMOUS & AGGREGATED

Three data sources.
Five dimensions. One ranking per discipline.

Self-assessment, anonymous alumni feedback, and expert validation from the Swiss ecosystem – each data source feeds its own dimensions. Single-layer model, no double weighting.

3 sources
Self · Founder · Expert
5 indices
Outcomes · Track · Substance · …
Score 0–100
within your discipline only
Discipline status
Silver → Diamond
Founder Outcomes 40%
The dominant dimension – a program exists for founders, not for board reports
4 separate rankings
One ranking per program discipline, no cross-type comparison
Single-layer model
Each dimension has its own data source – no double weighting

Weighting of the five dimensions

Founder Outcomes is the clearly dominant dimension at 40%. A program exists for founders, not for board reports.

Founder Outcomes
40%
Sheet B Survey · Min. 8 alumni reviews · anonymous & aggregated
Track Record & Alumni Performance
25%
Top startups, follow-on funding rate, market traction
Programme Substance & Quality
20%
Coaching, mentoring, BD, investor access (self-assessed)
Funding Capacity & Fairness
8%
Funding amount, equity stake, non-cash resources
Scale & Reach
7%
Cohorts, throughput, alumni network
What does "calibration per program discipline" mean?
The five dimensions and their weighting are identical across all four disciplines. But the calibration thresholds within each dimension are tuned per discipline. Awards do not measure coaching quality. Education does not measure funding amount. Foundation initiatives measure mission impact rather than follow-on funding.
Track Record · Grants: Top alumni with ≥ CHF 5M follow-on = 10 pts
Track Record · Awards: 70%+ winners still active = 10 pts
Substance · Education: 80%+ alumni actively applying skills = 10 pts
Substance · Foundation: Documented mission impact = 10 pts

Selection Status per discipline

These four tiers apply independently within each program discipline.

S
Silver
70.0 – 79.9
G
Gold
80.0 – 89.9
P
Platinum
90.0 – 94.9
D
Diamond
≥ 95.0

Four steps. About 25 minutes total.

Submission today, full Selection Status with the public release in October 2026. Sensitive data beyond the published profile is never disclosed.

1
Create your free program profile

Register with your work email and select your program discipline. No credit card, no subscription. Your profile stays private until you actively choose to publish it.

~3 minutes
2
Complete the self-assessment

Structured questions across the five dimensions. You can save and resume any time. Sensitive fields (budget sources, sponsor agreements) stay private and never appear publicly.

~20 minutes
3
List alumni for the survey

Provide email addresses for alumni from your last three cohorts (or award years, or training years). We handle dispatch, automated reminders, and aggregation. Survey runs 4–6 weeks.

~5 minutes for you
4
Receive your score & badge

Your final score and Selection Status arrive with the public release in October 2026. Sensitive data beyond the published profile is never disclosed.

Public release: Oct 2026

What founders say stays anonymous.
What you share stays under your control.

Six promises for your data:
Hosting in Switzerland, DSG- and GDPR-compliant
Founder feedback is reported only in aggregated form
Sensitive data beyond the published profile is never disclosed
Budget sources and sponsor agreements remain private
Profile deletion at any time with one click in the dashboard
No third-party transfer, no sale to lead providers

Questions already?

Approximately 25 minutes for the self-assessment plus another 5 minutes to list alumni for the survey – so roughly 30 minutes of your time in total. You can save progress and resume anytime. After submission, the alumni survey runs in the background for 4–6 weeks. Public Selection Status is released in October 2026.
Awards are grouped in the "Awards & Competitions" discipline and only compared to comparable award programs – not to grants or foundation programs. The calibration thresholds are tuned for award logic: award programs are not penalised for "missing coaching substance" because that is not their function. What counts: who were the winners, where are they today, was the application process fair?
Apply your organisation in Hub Selection. Hub Selection covers your entire offering, including programs. You should not also apply to Program Selection separately, because that leads to double-counting and your alumni would be surveyed twice. Exception: if your organisation operates a standalone, well-defined funding instrument (e.g. Venturelab as a foundation operates Venture Kick as a separate grant program), the funding instrument can appear additionally in Program Selection.
Sheet C is filled out by investors, coaches, and hub leads from the Swiss ecosystem – those already pre-listed in Capital Selection, Coach Selection, and Hub Selection. They evaluate programs only when they know them. At least 5 expert reviews per program are required – otherwise Sheet C does not enter the score.

Submit your program profile.

Choose your discipline, complete the self-assessment in 25 minutes, and list alumni for the anonymous feedback.

Submit your program  →

~25 minutes · pausable any time · DSG- & GDPR-compliant

15+
GRANTS
pre-registered already
8+
AWARDS
pre-registered already
10+
EDUCATION
pre-registered already
12+
FOUNDATION
pre-registered already