Since 2016, the ISEAL Innovations Fund has been a launchpad for ISEAL members to join forces to explore new, ambitious ways to boost the impact and value of sustainability systems. Six years on, with all grants awarded and projects completed, phase one has ended – and phase two begins...

The Innovations Fund has driven experimentation and innovation in the ISEAL community, supporting 49 projects with a total grant value of over 6 million Swiss Francs. This was made possible thanks to generous donors, particularly the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO. 

With 30 ISEAL members having led or partnered on projects, and others having actively engaged with the concepts and outputs, a culture of collaboration has been fundamental to phase one. 

Project insights

Projects have generated valuable insights on a range of themes central to making sustainability systems more efficient, effective and inclusive, such as leveraging data and technology, risk-based approaches to assurance, addressing producer needs, and delivering impact at landscape level. We’ve shared the results from ISEAL Innovations Fund projects amongst the ISEAL community, including through live workshops, and publicised them more widely. Learn more about our portfolio of projects and download key outputs. 

Lessons learned

The ISEAL Innovations Fund has been a new opportunity for us to operate a grant-making facility embedded within our Innovations Programme. This has enabled us to work closely with ISEAL members to build a diverse portfolio of cross-sector projects, as well as an open and collaborative environment for our community to learn from each other as they experiment, test and innovate. Find out more about the key achievements and lessons learned from the ISEAL Innovations Fund and Programme. 

Landscapes learning

To meet ambitious sustainability targets in the coming decades, we need impactful solutions that not only work at the level of a single supply chain but can be scaled across landscapes or jurisdictions.

The ISEAL Innovations Fund has supported ISEAL members to experiment with initiatives at landscape level – including collaborations with local actors to build consensus and capacity for change, using geospatial data, and measuring social and economic indicators – helping to accelerate progress at scale. Learn more about how these projects have advanced our understanding of how sustainability systems can operate at landscape level. 

ISEAL Innovations Fund and Programme: phase two

We are delighted to announce that ISEAL has signed a new funding agreement with SECO to continue the ISEAL Innovations Fund and Programme. As we head into our second phase, a new call for project proposals is due to be opened in spring 2023. 

Building on the insights already generated from the first six years of the Fund, we are excited to foster the spirit of collective learning between ISEAL members and to share ideas and innovations for the benefit of the wider community of sustainability systems. 

The new phase is an opportunity to further cultivate the culture of collaborative innovation already flourishing in the ISEAL community. Through ambitious partnerships, and a deeper understanding of the broader environments in which sustainability systems operate, we aim to give rise to new ideas for solutions, technologies and approaches to help sustainability systems drive large-scale and long-lasting impact. 

We hope you’ll join us on this next phase of the journey.