• H2020
• Global Collaboration

The latest meeting of the Swiss-EU/EURATOM Joint Committee has taken place, the first since the EU and Bern agreed to the country’s partial association in Horizon 2020.

Several points were discussed at the 20th meeting of the Swiss-EU/EURATOM Joint Committee, including co-operation on research between Switzerland and the EU were discussed at the meeting, including Switzerland’s participation in the current and preceding EU framework programmes for research and innovation, the EURATOM programme and in the ITER project.

In September, Brussels and Switzerland agreed a deal that would allow Swiss-based researchers to take part in certain Horizon 2020 programme sections as associated partners, including the European Research Council, Future and Emerging Technologies and the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions. As associated partners, researchers in Switzerland receive direct funding from the EU.

However, for most sections of Horizon 2020, Switzerland has third country status, which allows researchers to join research consortiums, but are not eligible for EU funding. Switzerland has introduced a system of direct payments to enable its researchers to participate in programme sections for which no EU funding is available.

There is a possibility that Switzerland will be able to take part in the full Horizon 2020 programme from 2017, as a long as a solution can be found to the question of free movement of persons by 9 February 2017. If that is not the case, Switzerland’s partial association will end on 31 December 2016, meaning that Switzerland would only be able to participate in the research and innovation framework programme with third country status.