Bern will support Balkan state participation in Horizon 2020

The head of the Swiss Economic Affairs department has said his country will support Montenegro’s participation in Horizon 2020 through funding, research project collaboration and student exchange.

Johan N Schneider-Ammann, the head of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, made the comments following a meeting with Montenegrin Minister of Science, Sanja Vlahović. Schneider-Ammann described closer co-operation in science and education between the two countries as beneficial and the head of department praised Montenegro’s scientific progress.

Schneider-Ammann and Vlahović also discussed Switzerland’s SCOPES (Scientific co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland) programme, which aims to encourage collaboration between groups and institutions. The programme has a budget of CHF 16 million (~€13.3m) between 2013-2016 and comprises five individual funding schemes.

Earlier this week, Vlahović visited the CERN which is located in Switzerland and the announcement of closer collaboration comes ahead of the signing ceremony of the partial association agreement of Switzerland to Horizon 2020 in Brussels tomorrow.

You can read an interview with Sanja Vlahović in the latest edition of Portal here.