The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) conducted an online survey among researchers impacted by the non-association to Horizon Europe in February 2022.
It received 880 responses, 275 of which were accompanied by concrete examples (319 in total) of the consequences of non-association. Most of them show that the situation has deteriorated compared to the period of Switzerland’s association with Horizon 2000. The main negative consequences mentioned were limited access to funding opportunities and being left out of European networks. In their examples, the survey participants primarily mentioned exclusion from certain programme strands, the impossibility of playing a coordinating role and difficulties in participating in collaborative projects.
The results are consistent with SFRI’s analysis. SERI will use this data to design future measures. It should be noted, however, that a good overview will only be possible once the results of this qualitative survey have been complemented by the European Commission’s quantitative evaluation of programme participation.
Currently, Swiss researchers and innovators can participate in about two-thirds of Horizon Europe’s calls for projects. The projects are not funded by the European Commission, but directly by the SERI as part of the transitional measures. For the parts of the programme that are not accessible, the Confederation has developed transitional solutions that are implemented by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Innosuisse and the European Space Agency (ESA), among others. The SNSF reports strong interest in the corresponding calls for projects, even from researchers from abroad. Innosuisse reports a high number of applications for the transitional measure Swiss Accelerator.
The press release of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) is available in DE, FR and IT.