New ideas emerge through open dialogue across companies, industries and borders. That is why Swissgrid prioritises partnerships that accelerate innovation and generate sustainable solutions. The focus is on ex-changing knowledge, accessing external expertise, working with start-ups, research and industry, and active-ly helping to shape innovation ecosystems.
The European energy transition and the associated challenges cannot be resolved in isolation. Thanks to Open Innovation, Swissgrid is opening up its innovation process to partners from science and industry. Swissgrid is working with research institutes, start-ups and industrial partners in Switzerland and Europe to actively drive forward new technologies and put innovative solutions into practice more quickly. The focus is on harnessing synergies by exchanging knowledge, ideas and research results, and on strengthening international innovation ecosystems. This dynamic, cooperative approach allows:
Swissgrid is part of the TSO Innovation Alliance, the Cross-Industry Innovators ecosystem and the CRESYM research ecosystem. We pool our innovative strength in these strategic networks to evaluate more ideas more quickly, develop appropriate solutions and implement them operationally.
Swissgrid is pursuing three goals with this commitment:
The energy transition poses a challenge for Europe’s grids: more renewable energies and growing system complexity require new solutions. To actively shape this change, eight leading transmission system operators – Swissgrid, Elia Group (Elia, 50Hertz), TenneT, Terna, RTE, Red Eléctrica and Amprion – founded the TSO Innovation Alliance in July 2025.
To drive innovation more rapidly and in a more coordinated manner, we are pooling our expertise across national borders to make the European electricity grid more resilient and efficient together. Joint innovation projects (proof of concepts, or PoCs for short) allow us to share resources, reduce costs and shorten the development cycles of new technologies. At the same time, we are promoting collaboration with start-ups, scale-ups and research partners, and creating an innovation ecosystem that actively integrates business and science. This will allow faster development of market-ready solutions for a climate-neutral energy system in 2050.
All critical infrastructures face similar challenges – whether they are for electricity, rail or telecommunications. Since 2022, Swissgrid has been pooling the experience of partners such as SBB, Terna and Elia Group, Red Eléctrica and Austrian Power Grid in the Cross-Industry Ecosystem. This cross-industry perspective opens new avenues for efficient, digital asset management.
Digital solutions for system monitoring are developed in joint pilot projects – for example using autonomous drone flights, IoT sensor technology or AI-assisted image analyses. This cooperation enables Swissgrid to detect damage more quickly, rectify disturbances more rapidly and plan investments more precisely. Thanks to pooled expertise, shared costs and shorter development cycles, measurable added value is created for the security and efficiency of critical infrastructures in Switzerland and Europe.
The CRESYM (Collaborative Research for Energy SYstem Modelling) research ecosystem brings together over 40 industry and research partners in Europe. Its aim is to develop simulation and modelling tools for the energy system of the future. The European non-profit organisation focuses on cooperative research projects with a low technology readiness level (TRL) – as open-source building blocks for research and practice. As a founding member and strategic partner, Swissgrid actively contributes its expertise in system operations to the organisation’s projects.
As the national grid company, Swissgrid is firmly convinced that the complex challenges of the energy future can only be resolved in cooperation with partners.
Swissgrid is already working closely with many partners from science and research, including renowned institutions such as ETH Zurich and EPFL in Lausanne, on joint innovation projects. Swissgrid also collaborates with other research institutes, start-ups and established companies from the energy industry.
Swissgrid is open to exchanging expertise on innovative approaches and new technologies – be it with start-ups, research institutes or established companies.
To make sure that the Swiss electricity grid remains resilient and efficient in the future, Swissgrid welcomes new ideas from talented people. We support selected research projects and theses, and offer individual internships in areas connected to our innovation priorities: «Transformation of the energy system», «The grid control room of the future», «Data, applied AI & algorithms» and «Digital asset management and new technologies».
Opportunities to get involved and actively help shape the future of electricity in Switzerland can be found on Swissgrid’s job portal.
