While Horizon Europe has started, Switzerland is currently considered a third country. But there is broad support for its association to the new EU programmes.
Between 16 and 22 June 2021, the European Commission (EC) gradually published the Horizon Europe main Work Programme and the Programme Guide. This followed a prolonged discussion between the EC and Member States on restrictions and association of third countries (see SwissCore article). While the EU’s new research and innovation (R&I) framework programme came into force on 12 May – with retroactive effect as of 1 January 2021 – the first European Research Council calls have de facto already started the Horizon Programme back in February, followed by the European Innovation Council that was launched in March (see SwissCore article). After the calls in June, all three pillars of Horizon Europe, as well as the widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area (ERA) part of the programme have now started. The institutionalised European Partnerships will follow in late 2021 or early 2022, once the respective legislative process will be concluded under the upcoming Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU that will begin on 1 July 2021. Furthermore, the new instrument of Missions still awaits further clarification, even though first calls for coordination and support actions with limited funding are already part of the first Horizon Europe Work Programme.
The EU’s association efforts with third countries interested to join Horizon Europe have taken up steam as well. In addition to the association talks that are based on existing agreements, like with the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area countries Norway and Iceland, first negotiation rounds have already been concluded with the Western Balkans, Turkey and Armenia. However, in the case of Switzerland, the Horizon Europe Programme Guide published on 22 June, includes a new reference: Switzerland is no longer covered by the transitional arrangements that currently allow to treat countries that were already associated to Horizon 2020 as associated to Horizon Europe as well. This arrangement enables legal entities established in countries that were associated to the previous R&I programme to apply to Horizon Europe calls before the actual association agreement is in place. However, the association will in any case have to be in effect at the time of the signature of grant agreements.
The EC has not yet published official information explaining why Switzerland was effectively downgraded to a third country in late June. Observers think that political considerations of the EC linked to market access topics between Switzerland and the EU, but unrelated to Horizon Europe, might play a role (see also SwissCore article). Meanwhile, more than 30 European R&I organisations, including many umbrella associations on European level, have signed an Open Letter supporting Switzerland’s association to Horizon Europe (see SwissCore article). Moreover, the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) published a statement, signed by all its members, that calls for Switzerland’s association to the new Erasmus+ programme and Horizon Europe (see SwissCore article). On the political level, delegations of the European Parliament and the Swiss Parliament met on 11 June to discuss EU-Swiss relations and the chairs of the two delegations afterwards published a Joint Declaration calling for Switzerland’s association to EU programmes, including Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, and Digital Europe. The chairs “call on the two parties to focus now above all on their citizens and therefore to proceed with mutually beneficial cooperation, detached from institutional issues, outside the area of market access – in particular Swiss participation in all EU programmes in the 2021-2027 period”.
Until there is further progress for Switzerland’s association to the new generation of EU programmes, collaboration with Swiss entities still remains possible as third countries can participate in many parts of the Horizon Europe programme. The Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) is regularly updating relevant information on their website: www.horizon-europe.ch. In education, Switzerland – and Swiss entities – can also still participate as a partner country in the Erasmus+ programme (see website of Movetia, the Swiss agency for exchange and mobility).