Switzerland and Horizon Europe – What happens next?

As ETH President Joël Mesot recently external page warned in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper, Switzerland risks losing its scientific strength if it does not become an associated country in the Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programme. Detlef Günther, Vice President for Research, reiterated this at an EU GrantsAccess event on the subject: “The longer Switzerland is excluded from Horizon Europe, the more severe the consequences for research and innovation in Switzerland will be.” The exclusion affects not only leading researchers, but especially also the talented individuals who are thinking about whether to come to Zurich or to continue their career in a country that is fully associated in Horizon Europe and where they can apply for European-evaluated ERC Grants.

The exclusion affects individual funding in particular. Researchers in Switzerland are excluded both from grants from the European Research Council (ERC Grants), which fund cutting-edge research, and from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships, which support early-career researchers. At least the federal government is using the funds earmarked for Horizon Europe to provide financially equivalent funding in Switzerland. Thus, transitional measures have been established for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships and ERC Grants. These measures encompass SNF Starting Grants, SNF Consolidator Grants and SNF Advanced Grants. Nevertheless, the exclusion from European competition is likely to become a problem in the long term, even if the funding amounts of Switzerland’s transitional measures are equivalent to those in Europe.

The problem with the transitional solutions

Although these transitional solutions are modelled as closely as possible on the European calls for proposals, the research proposals from Switzerland are not evaluated by the globally recognised expert panels. Accordingly, if Switzerland reviews and funds research proposals on its own, there will be no direct comparison between Swiss researchers and other leading researchers in Europe.

But this direct international comparison, along with ERC certification, is extremely important for top researchers in Switzerland, as Tilman Esslinger, ETH Professor of Quantum Optics at the Institute for Quantum Electronics, explained at the “Switzerland and Horizon Europe” event. Even if it is ultimately the research results, and not the label on the funding package, that distinguish a funded scientist, expert panels that – in the tradition established by the ERC – focus their evaluation entirely on scientific excellence are particularly respected and important among researchers and in the international research arena.

This is also shown by the specific experiences – presented at the event – of researchers from ETH and UZH in Horizon Europe and its predecessor programmes. They, too, make it clear that the value of this research programme is not measured solely by the funding it obtains, but especially also by the opportunities the international collaboration opens up: entire postdoc careers can be developed on the back of European consortium projects. Such projects offer researchers in the natural and social sciences and the humanities the chance to create an international network, and even start-ups can combine financing for product development with Europe-wide collaboration with experts.

Access to project funding is partially limited as well. For example, researchers in Switzerland are barred from initiatives such as Quantum SGA. One particularly painful aspect is the exclusion of researchers in Switzerland from coordinating Horizon projects. “This often denies them the possibility to take on the role of initiator or pioneer,” Günther says. “There are examples from earthquake research and climate modelling where the leadership role migrated from ETH to Spain.”

Of course, there are also many areas in Horizon Europe that Swiss researchers can still participate in (and also receive support from EU GrantsAccess). For example, they can take part in and receive EU funding for the ERC Synergy Grants, which involve collaboration among up to four researchers.

To be allowed to fully participate in Horizon Europe again, “third countries” such as Switzerland must go through a process of association and sign what’s called a specific agreement. Switzerland is still at the very beginning of this journey. One challenge it will face here is that the association issue with the Horizon funding programme has become increasingly political since Brexit and since the termination of negotiations on a framework agreement between Switzerland and the EU. Thus far, efforts to disentangle research and politics again (e.g. through the “external page Stick to Science” initiative) have not succeeded.