Horizon package: Federal Council to finance transitional measures in 2024

Bern, 10.04.2024 - On 10 April, the Federal Council decided on transitional measures for the 2024 calls for proposals under the European Union's Horizon package 2021-2027 (Horizon Europe, Euratom programme, ITER and Digital Europe Programme). A maximum amount of CHF 650 million has been set aside for this purpose. This allocation is drawn from funding earmarked by Parliament at the end of 2020 for Switzerland's participation in the Horizon package. The Federal Council remains committed to achieving Swiss association to the Horizon package as soon as possible.

Switzerland is still considered a non-associated third country in the Horizon package 2021-2027, meaning that research and innovation stakeholders in Switzerland are able to participate in around two-thirds of the programme. The Federal Council has allocated CHF 600 million in direct funding for these calls. The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation will use these funds to finance Swiss participants after their proposals have been evaluated positively by the European Commission.

The Federal Council has earmarked a further CHF 50 million for non-accessible parts of the programme. These include individual funding instruments (ERC Starting Grants, MSCA postdoctoral fellowships), for which national transitional measures will be implemented, as well as additional funding for activities in the areas of space and cybersecurity.

Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe is the EU's 9th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and runs from 2021 to 2027. With a budget of over EUR 95 billion, it is the world's largest research and innovation funding programme. Switzerland was associated to its predecessor, Horizon 2020. The Federal Council is working to achieve the same status for Horizon Europe and the related programmes and initiatives (Euratom Programme, ITER and Digital Europe Programme) as soon as possible. Transitional measures totalling CHF 1.85 billion were allocated for calls for proposals in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Negotiations between Switzerland and the EU on the package approach and as such on association to EU programmes are under way. This will give researchers in Switzerland the opportunity to participate in the ERC Advanced Grants call in 2024 and compete in outstanding frontier research. Swiss participation will continue to be funded directly by the Confederation until the association agreement comes into force.

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