With the start of negotiations, researchers in Switzerland become eligible to apply for 2024 ERC Advanced Grants. The EC adopted its first defence industrial strategy.
On 18 March, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the Swiss Confederation Viola Amherd officially launched Swiss-EU negotiations on a new package approach. The start of negotiations follows the adoption of the Swiss and EU negotiating mandates on 8 and 12 March 2024, respectively. The mandates authorise the Commission and the Swiss government to negotiate the package outlined in a Common Understanding, endorsed by the Swiss Federal Council and the European Commission in November 2023 after 18 months of exploratory talks since March 2022 (see SwissCore article).
The negotiations on association to EU programmes, e.g., Horizon Europe, Euratom programme, Digital Europe Programme, ITER and Erasmus+, are part of the negotiations on the package approach. With the start of negotiations, the EU has put in place the transitional arrangement 2024, which allows researchers in Switzerland to participate in the 2024 ERC Advanced Grants call as ‘potential beneficiary’, funded by the Swiss government if an association agreement would not yet be in place. Swiss researchers and innovators will, however, continue to participate in all other Horizon Europe 2024 calls (except strategic topics like space and partly quantum), i.e., collaborative projects, as ‘associated partners’ and will be directly funded by the Swiss government based on its respective financial guarantee. A transitional arrangement is to be applied to all Horizon Europe and Euratom calls for proposals for the 2025 programme year (except strategic topics) as soon as a corresponding agreement between Switzerland and the EU has been initialled, i.e., negotiations have been concluded. For more information on the Swiss participation in Horizon Europe, please consult the website of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation: www.horizon-europe.ch.
Earlier this month, on 5 March, the European Commission (EC) and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy adopted their first ever ‘European Defence Industrial Strategy’ (EDIS). The EDIS joint communication sets a vision for the European defence industrial policy until 2035. It aims for more collaborative investment from Member States, strengthening the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB), mainstreaming a defence readiness culture across EU policies, and to team up with like-minded and international partners. The strategy is in line with the Versailles Declaration of 2022, in which the Heads of State of Government agreed to bolster the EU’s defence capabilities, including by fostering synergies between civilian, defence, and space research and innovation (see SwissCore article).
While the new strategy focuses on the EU’s ability to respond in manufacturing terms to security urgencies, research and development also play a key role: “A sustained R&D effort is more necessary than ever to maintain the EDTIB competitiveness in the longer term, notably in terms of its availability to tap the full potential of the excellence of its scientists, engineers, and innovators. In the short-term, achieving technological breakthroughs would also support tackling current challenges, including the ongoing war in Ukraine.” The EDIS identifies dual-use as a key priority to strengthen the EU’s defence: “The sector needs to take full advantage of faster civil innovation cycles for technologies with dual-use potential to maintain its competitiveness and ensure the military’s edge on the battlefield.”
According to the EDIS, the development of innovative defence products should be underpinned by support for research into future-proof defence capabilities, including in disruptive technologies: “To that effect, the EU must seek to offer innovative undertakings ‒ especially start-ups, SMEs, small MidCaps and Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) ‒ more flexible, faster, and leaner funding cycles and facilitate better connections with military end-users and investors”. The EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS) under the European Defence Fund (EDF) will propose within the current MFF innovation support services and more support for innovative product and technology testing and validation. The EDIS also addresses dependencies on technologies that are critical for the European defence sector and that could negatively impact the EDTIB’s competitiveness. The EU Observatory of Critical Technologies (see SwissCore article) just delivered its first classified report to Member States on identified technology dependencies of the EU and technology roadmaps to mitigate them. After focusing so far on electrical, electronic, and electro-mechanical semiconductor-based components and autonomous systems technologies, it is planned to further scale up the Observatory to allow a faster identification of dependencies and monitoring of supply chains and criticalities.
As a first immediate initiative of EDIS, the EC proposes a new regulation for a European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) to support the EU defence sector during the current multiannual financial framework (MFF), while testing new forms of support in view of the next programming period. The EDIS also underscores the importance “that the next MFF includes an ambitious financial envelope on defence with relevant budgets for the successors of both EDF and EDIP for the period from 2028 onwards”. In addition, the EDIS emphasises the need to maximise synergies between EU instruments, as already discussed in the case of Horizon Europe and the EDF: “The future MFF should, in that respect, seek to further optimise synergies between EU instruments, as mentioned in the Commission White Paper on options to boost investment in R&D of technologies with dual use potential”. In addition, the EDIS explicitly mentions synergies with several other EU programmes: “The EDTIB should fully benefit from Union funding designed for technological and industrial development, including under Cohesion Policy Funds, notably the ERDF, ESF+ (e.g. on skills), Cohesion Fund (e.g. for transport) and InvestEU, provided this is in line with the respective programme and policy objectives.”
March also saw significant progress on the association of the Republic of Korea to the EU framework programme for research and innovation. On 25 March, Korea and the European Commission concluded negotiations on Korea’s association to the second pillar of Horizon Europe. It is expected that the signing of the respective association agreement will take place in the second half of 2024, pending the completion of all necessary ratification procedures on both sides. This would enable Korea to participate in Horizon Europe as of 2025. Korea will be the third country outside the wider European region to join the framework programme after New Zealand and Canada.