Partial association of Switzerland to Horizon 2020
Last Friday, the Swiss authorities and the European Commission confirmed that Switzerland will be considered an associated country to parts of H2020 as of today, Monday 15.9.2014.
This announcement was made on the basis of an agreement for partial association of Switzerland to H2020 which was reached this summer and will be applied in a provisional and retroactive way as of today. Signature is expected to take place in early December after due process on both the EU and Swiss side.
The partial association means that researchers based in Switzerland will:
• Be considered as coming from an ASSOCIATED COUNTRY to H2020 for activities within the Pillar 1 (Excellent science), Widening participation, Euratom and ITER of H2020. Switzerland will also contribute financially to these parts of the programme (pro rata temporis) according to the usual GDP-based formulas.
• Be considered as coming from a THIRD COUNTRY to H2020 for activities within all other parts of H2020 (mainly pillars 2 and 3). As announced below already in June, Switzerland has confirmed that it will give direct funding to Swiss-based researchers who cannot receive funding from the European Commission.
Given this rather rapid entry into force and possible uncertainties that may arise, I am happy to remain at your disposal for any questions and would be thankful if you can help ensure good information flow to the multipliers and researchers in your countries
More information can be found on the links below:
• Swiss portal: http://www.sbfi.admin.ch/dienstleistungen/formulare/01667/index.html?lang=en
• European Commission’s participants’ portal: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020-hi-swiss-part_en.pdf