Switzerland has moved to fill the funding gap caused by the country’s demotion in Horizon 2020, establishing its own temporary scheme offering European Research Council-like grants to researchers.
The European Commission announced on 26 February that Switzerland is barred from participating as a full member of the Horizon 2020 R&D programme and the Erasmus scheme supporting scientists to work abroad, during 2014, following a political row over a referendum vote to cap immigration into the country.
Swiss researchers were left reeling by the news, after learning they could no longer apply for the sought-after European Research Council (ERC) grants. Under ERC rules, applications from researchers who would like to do research in Switzerland will also be blocked.
To help offset the loss of funding, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has announced it will offer ERC-like grants to researchers until a political agreement is reached with the EU, saying the “high competitiveness and performance as well as the international nature of research and innovation in Switzerland must be safeguarded.”
The calls for this temporary scheme will be open to scientists who work in Switzerland or who are currently negotiating positions at institutions in Switzerland. It’s designed to ensure that those scientists who already prepared proposals for ERC funding will not see their efforts turn to dust.
SNSF promises, “Proposals for ERC Starting Grants with a home institution in Switzerland that have been prepared or already submitted to the ERC can be submitted….without any major changes in terms of form and content.”
SNSF spokesman Alan Knuas, said, “One goal of our temporary funding is of course to reduce uncertainty for researchers in Switzerland who had already submitted or prepared their proposals for ERC Grants and were now in a sort of dead-end,”
“Based on earlier experience with the ERC Grants we expect to receive about 200 to 250 proposals for SNSF starting and consolidator grants in total; given the lack of alternatives for researchers in Switzerland at the moment, we feel confident that the SNSF starting grants are an attractive temporary opportunity for them and their scientific career,” added Knaus.
The original ERC submission deadlines for the starting grant proposals (25 March) and the consolidator grant proposals (20 May) will remain in place for the new temporary scheme.
Applicants can register for the scheme’s funding here. SNSF also launched a hotline for questions from applicants: +41 31 308 22 22.
Receive the Funding Newswire each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
