Submit your request to get help and move your project forward.

H4 services The support process Application form

H4 services

H4 supports those with an idea or project, from the individual to the company, and helps them to take a significant step in their project.

 
It provides tailored support with:

  • Assessments, validations, and practical tests, in realistic, real, secure, and supervised situations
  • Analyses to guide the actions needed to develop the project
  • Easy access to users, healthcare institutions, caregivers, or patients
  • Specific knowledge of the healthcare environment or innovation processes
  • Funding support, only to cover an experimental study 

The idea or project must involve:

  • The creation of an innovative product or service in healthcare
  • An innovation with a technological contribution, or an organisational or process change
  • Long-term economic benefits in the Canton de Vaud (business model, optimization of practices, company or job creation, …)

 

PLEASE NOTE that the following are not supported:

  • Purely academic, research, and teaching projects 
  • Trade and commercial promotion activities
  • Requests for Vouchers which would be paid directly to the project owner or to the company

Want to apply for support?
Simply fill out the application form available on this platform.
The request will be reviewed and assistance can be provided through the seven steps described below.

The 4-step support process

 Request for support and preanalyssis

Any project owner can submit a support request on this site, in French or English, using the dedicated form. The process is free. The request is pre-analyzed. The H4 follows up on it, depending on its relevance to its missions and its capacity to process it. A pre-analysis is then communicated by email to the project owner to inform him or her of the planned actions and justify them. If the request is accepted, constructive questions are asked to the project owner in order to encourage reflection.

  Needs analysis and advice

If the request is accepted, the project owner is invited to present his project to the H4 team and to determine with them the next possible steps within the framework of H4. The process involves analyzing the real needs of the project by determining the gap between the current stage of the project and the targeted later stage. Aspects such as market needs, the level of knowledge of the market and the health field by the carrier, feasibility or the business model are taken into account.

 

  Co-definition of the project to be carried out

The project owner is then invited to present their project to a committee of experts who will give them valuable feedback and may even offer help. The H4 prepares this presentation with the project owner. Then, the analysis of the previous step is continued taking into account the feedback from the committee to identify the unknowns influencing the potential success of the project, deduce the critical hypotheses to be verified and specify the most appropriate experiment to carry out this validation of hypotheses. Experimentation may include expert consultations, meetings with decision-makers, focus groups with caregivers, field visits, user interviews, prototype testing, pilot deployments, etc.

   Execution

The experiment defined in the previous step is detailed (determination of partnerships, recruitment of participants, planning, budget) then carried out with the appropriate stakeholders. Members of the H4 often remain involved as project managers or experts. The financing method is determined in the previous step. This can be an H4 Voucher (sometimes financed by an H4 partner); granting is considered if it proves difficult to obtain financing from another source, taking into account the maturity of the project; the amount of the Voucher stands typically between CHF 2,000 and 4,000. H4 also analyzes the possibilities of financing the project from external sources, such as Innosuisse, foundation funds, competitions, FIT grants, etc.

Process map

Submitting an application

If after carefully reading the above conditions, you feel that H4 can help you take your project to the next level, you can submit a request for support. In accordance with the process described, your request will be analyzed and a response will be given in all cases.

Submit your request