Through its Interactive Media Work Grants, Pro Helvetia supports the creation of new projects characterised by their originality, formal and design quality, feasibility and a high degree of innovation, potential marketability and digital distribution.

The eligible projects are independent interactive works for computers, mobile phones, tablets, game consoles, virtual reality glasses or similar platforms. They must hold a high degree of interaction, meaning that the action of the user must have a major impact on the unfolding of the content.

Pro Helvetia’s Interactive Media Work Grants are aimed at emerging talents: Swiss developers who founded their studios or graduated less than seven years ago. Pro Helvetia’s goal is to support outstanding projects and to enable them to gain an international audience.

The Work Grants are available for three phases in a project’s evolution, from concept to market launch:
• Pre-production funding
• Production funding
• Post-production funding
Project support can also be complemented by individual coaching measures.

General conditions of participation:
Applicants (developers or studios) must fulfil the following criteria:

• Funding measures are aimed at applicants who are either Swiss citizens or have permanent residence in Switzerland.
• Applicants may submit projects up to seven years after graduation or within the first seven years after establishing a studio.
• The project is carried out according to professional standards.
• Project contents are based on an independent concept — applicants may also apply for funding to continue or further develop a realised and distributed project.
• The project is highly innovative in creative and technological terms.

Additional conditions for production and post-production funding:

• The project must be submitted by a legal entity (examples: public limited company (AG), limited liability company (GmbH))
• Sole proprietorships are also admissible provided the intention of converting them into a legal entity is stated in written form.
• The applicant must hold copyright and the rights of use.
• Written proof of own funds or third-party financing, or that money is available for payment (loan available for drawing) and that the funds will be used for the production phase. Such proof can be:  a signed agreement or an up-to-date statement of account and a signed document guaranteeing that the applicant will invest the amount in question in the production.

Project submission:

• The application deadline for all funding measures is
  Tuesday 1 March 2022 (inclusive).
• No funding is awarded retrospectively. The corresponding project phase may be completed at the earliest four months and at the latest one year after the application deadline.
• Applications must be submitted via myprohelvetia.ch.
• Essentially, all documents must be submitted in English. If the applicant has no knowledge of English, he/she must provide a project summary (max. 1 A4 page) and may submit the main documents either in German, French or Italian. The summary will be translated into English by Pro Helvetia for the jury process.
• Only one project may be submitted per funding phase.
• In the event of rejection, the same project may be resubmitted only once.
• The application must be complete and submitted on time (1 March 2022, 23:59).

The guidelines for applicants : Interactive Media and the factsheet: Interactive Media Work Grants are available on Pro Helvetia’s website.

We are looking forward to receiving your application!