Our online R&I Seminar attracted 140 participants and gave insights into Swiss-EU relations, Horizon Europe, Digital Europe and EU digital and green policies.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, unfortunately this year’s annual gathering of the Swiss research and innovation (R&I) community was not possible in Brussels. Like so many other events, the SwissCore R&I Seminar had to move to an online location.
After an intense week of technical testing, the seminar was finally off to a good start with the traditional Pre-Seminar on an operation level on Wednesday, 20 January. Given the start of Horizon Europe just around the corner, the discussions on implementation issues such as grant applications and evaluation, the reporting of costs or Open Science were intense. Even more so, because this year’s edition was probably the largest SwissCore Pre-Seminar ever. Thanks to the almost infinite space of the online venue, we welcomed 95 participants instead of the 50 we normally squeeze into the KoWi meeting room.
For the first day of the main seminar on Thursday, participant numbers were even higher. We counted up to 140, and those were in for a start with a highlight. Short of a reception at the Swiss Mission to the EU, Ambassador Urs Bucher welcomed the Swiss audience with a comprehensive overview on the latest developments on the EU level, including the adoption of the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027, COVID-19 and the EU-UK agreement on one hand and EU-Swiss relations on the other hand. Bucher pointed out that the latter are frictionless in daily operations, Switzerland engages in intensive trade with the EU and several thousands of people cross the border in both directions each day. With respect to R&I the Swiss message persists: We have a strong R&I landscape and are part of the European landscape making it stronger in a global context. The EU should consider Switzerland as a reliable partner in all fields, but especially in R&I.
The remainder of Thursday covered Horizon Europe in detail. Starting with the next steps in finalising the legislation and starting association negotiations with third countries including Switzerland seen from the Swiss and EU perspective, discussion moved to strategic planning and programme content. The seminar focused on covering Horizon Europe novelties, including Missions and the reorganised European Partnerships landscape in pillar II, developments towards a new European Research Area (ERA) as well as the European Innovation Council and European Innovation Ecosystems in Pillar III. It was reassuring to hear from the speakers that associated countries will be welcome in all new Partnership types and can also actively engage in Missions.
On Friday morning, we welcomed participants back with another highlight. Like in 2020 already, we were delighted to host Maria da Graça Carvalho, Portuguese Member of the European Parliament, expert in all R&I issues as a long-standing member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a member of the new Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA). Carvalho perfectly set the scene for the day, which focused on digital and green policies, by pointing out that the green and the digital transitions are two sides of the same coin and should be given the same priority. She called for more presence of digital in the European Industrial Strategy and emphasised that the lack of advanced digital skills is still a barrier for EU competitiveness. Closing the gender gap in digital will need special attention.
The remainder of the seminar offered an in detail insight into the strategy and implementation of the Digital Europe Programme, which Switzerland also aspires to associate to, as well as the calendar of the Portuguese Council Presidency, the UK’s participation in EU R&I programmes and the European Green Deal agenda. Bernd Biervert from the EC referred to the ‘New European Bauhaus’ as a method to make the European Green Deal more tangible, explained priority topics such as clean hydrogen as well as the Green Deal Call under Horizon 2020, which was possible thanks to associated country contributions. In good SwissCore tradition, the R&I Seminar finished with a quiz. Despite a new online tool used also here, the quiz showed that some things never change, even in a virtual world, the most eager and successful quizzers remain the same.