Sighs of relief in Switzerland, as the EU accepts its scientists back into a handful of research programmes
Swiss researchers are to be permitted to apply for a handful of programmes under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s €80 billion research programme, including European Research Council grants, following an agreement with the European Commission.
After several months of negotiations, the Commission has agreed to give Switzerland its associated country status back for the so-called first pillar of Horizon 2020, worth €24.4 billion for seven years. In addition to the ERC, Swiss researchers will have access to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grants for researchers working abroad, and to Future and Emerging Technologies, the programme through which the €1 billion Human Brain Project, led by Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, is funded.
For the second and third pillars of Horizon 2020, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges, Switzerland is still locked out and remains a “third country” the same status as the US or Japan. Swiss scientists can still join these projects, but they will not receive any funding from the EU. To help offset this loss, the Swiss government has announced it will act as guarantor and finance SMEs or start-ups that pass the evaluation round.
The deal will not be signed until December, but will be retroactive to 15 September. The agreement is only in place until the end of 2016.
Universities have reacted positively to the news while the Swiss Economics, Education and Research Minister, Johann-Schneider-Ammann, told Swiss television that it was an important step. The Swiss were in the "Champions League" of research, he said.
Anti-immigration vote
The EU halted Switzerland’s full participation in the Horizon 2020 package in February after a controversial vote to re-introduce immigration quotas for EU citizens.
It remains a flash point and a precursor for a full re-entry. The EU still expects Switzerland to include Croatia, which joined the EU last year, in its agreement on the free movement of persons before 2017.
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