Government boosts funding for Swiss research amid EU Horizon exclusion

Due to Switzerland’s exclusion from the European Union’s Horizon research programme, researchers in Switzerland are not eligible for the corresponding European calls for proposals. Keystone / Ennio Leanza

The Swiss government has earmarked a further CHF84 million ($93 million) for 2024 for individual projects by researchers in Switzerland. This is a transitional measure intended to help Switzerland maintain innovative strength as it works through differences with the European Union

Due to Switzerland’s status as a non-associated third country in the European Union’s Horizon research programme, researchers in Switzerland are not eligible for the corresponding European calls for proposals. Therefore, as in previous years, researchers in Switzerland will be offered an adequate national substitute, as the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) announced on Wednesday.

This allows funds that Parliament had allocated at the end of 2020 for Switzerland’s participation in the Horizon package to be used to support research in Switzerland. SERI will entrust the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) with the calls for proposals.

+ Swiss research chief sounds alarm over EU Horizon exclusion

The government continues to pursue the goal of Switzerland’s association in the Horizon programme “as quickly as possible”. However, the 2024 calls for European grants close as early as October and December 2023, respectively. Therefore, they would not be accessible to researchers in Switzerland even in the event of Switzerland’s inclusion in the Horizon programme in 2024, SERI said

Horizon Europe, the ninth EU framework programme for research and innovation, runs from 2021 to 2027 and has a budget of a good €95 billion, is the world’s largest research and innovation funding programme. Switzerland was associated with the predecessor programme Horizon 2020. The Federal Council has already provided transitional measures amounting to CHF1.85 billion for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 calls.

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