With this email I would like to provide you with a short update on the position of Swiss coordinators and participants in Horizon 2020 collaborative projects and on opportunities for individual researchers coming to Switzerland.

As Switzerland is still considered an ‘industrialised third country’ in Horizon 2020, the Swiss government yesterday approved interim measures designed to directly support researchers from Swiss institutions who are involved in projects and programmes financed under Horizon 2020 and who will no longer receive any funding from the European Commission (EC). These measures entail:

1.    Direct national funding of researchers by the Swiss authorities of public research institutions, organisations and companies based in Switzerland who take part in Horizon 2020 cooperation projects, including ERA-NET and European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) projects, but do not receive funding from the European Commission. Funding is also available to meet the costs of managing or coordinating such projects.

2.    National funding for grants to Swiss researchers co-financed in other research programmes and initiatives linked to H2020 like COST and initiatives under articles 185 and 187, such as the SME support programme AAL, the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP).

3.    National funding for temporary schemes run by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) compensating for the exclusion from European Research Council (ERC) funding: the Federal Council has requested Parliament to approve additional funds in 2014 for the Swiss National Science Foundation's (SNSF) ‘temporary backup schemes'.

These measures should provide the necessary certainty and confidence for the participation and coordination of Horizon 2020 multi-beneficiary projects by Swiss institutions. The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) will develop and administer this funding on a project-by-project basis, as was done prior to 2004. The required legal provisions are currently being drafted and will be published later this year. It is important to note that the funding criteria will be based as closely as possible on Horizon 2020 criteria and other research and innovation programme requirements. Importantly, these measures safeguard financial opportunities for researchers who want work at a Swiss institution, but are currently excluded from the ERC.

Finally, these measures affect Horizon 2020 calls in 2014 which missed the opportunity to receive funding from the EC. The Federal Council's stated aim remains for Switzerland to achieve full association to Horizon 2020.

If you have any further question, please do not hesitate to contact me or have a look at the further resources provided below.

Kind regards,

David Bohmert

PS:

Just as a reminder, as a result of the freezing of the negotiations on Erasmus+, transitory measures have been approved by the Federal Council on 16 April for projects and mobility schemes in the field of education. https://www.news.admin.ch/message/index.html?lang=en&msg-id=52695

More information:

·Press release of the Swiss Federal Council from 25 June 2014 at https://www.news.admin.ch/message/index.html?lang=en&msg-id=53516

·EC information on Swiss participation in Horizon 2020 at http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-hi-swiss-part_en.pdf

·SERI information on Horizon 2020 at http://www.sbfi.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en

·Detailed (technical) FAQ supporting proposal preparation at https://www.euresearch.ch/fileadmin/redacteur/About_Euresearch/FAQ_Swiss_third-country_participation_in_Horizon2020_sv.pdf

·ERC temporary backup schemes are published on the homepage of the SNSF at http://www.snf.ch/en/Pages/default.aspx

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