The Swiss research & innovation community received an annual update on respective EU programmes and policies as well as an outlook towards Swiss association.
30 and 31 January 2024 saw the 2024 edition of SwissCore’s annual research and innovation (R&I) seminar. This year’s gathering of the Swiss R&I community in Brussels took place in an atmosphere of optimism, given the ongoing preparations for negotiations on Switzerland’s association to Horizon Europe. A total of 20 speakers were lined up for this gathering of the R&I stakeholders from Euresearch, SERI, SNSF, Innosuisse, swissuniversities, the ETH domain, the academies, and other Swiss organisations in the research and innovation area.
Before the start of the seminar, the participants received an update on the state of play in Swiss–EU relations from Ambassador Rita Adam at the reception at the Mission of Switzerland to the EU. This topic and the planned association to EU programmes remained at the centre of attention during the first session of the seminar: The audience heard more details from the Mission of Switzerland to the EU and the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) about the way forward after the signing of the Common Understanding between Switzerland and the European Commission (EC) and the beginning of exploratory talks in preparation of the negotiations on association to EU programmes in the fields of R&I and education (Horizon Europe, Euratom, Digital Europe Programme, ITER and Erasmus+). According to the Common Understanding, the EC would be ready to apply a transitional arrangement to Swiss applicants in the case of the ERC once the negotiations on the package of agreements have started (see SwissCore article). The transitional arrangement will be applied to all Horizon Europe and Euratom calls from 2025, provided that a corresponding agreement between Switzerland and the EU has been initialled by then.
The coming year will be a year of transition for the EU, with the European Parliament elections on 6-9 June 2024 and the appointment of a new European Commission (EC) in autumn. In addition, 2024 is also a crucial year for the preparation of the next framework programme for R&I (FP10), which was already casting its shadow in numerous inputs. The Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU informed about key priorities of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU in the area of R&I during the first half of 2024. The topics of open strategic autonomy and research security will be the focus of the Belgian Presidency, together with the improvement of the valorisation of research results to reduce the innovation gap. There are Council Conclusions foreseen to achieve these objectives. The R&I seminar included a deep dive into the European Research Area (ERA) with the EC, explaining the state of play of the implementation of the Policy Agenda 2022-2024 and the preparation of the upcoming ERA Policy Agenda for 2025-2027. This session also explored how the ERA can be supported by the EU’s framework programme for R&I. At the programme level, the audience was updated about the development of the second strategic plan for Horizon Europe (2025-2027), which will be adopted shortly, as well as the amendment of the current work programme 2023-2024.
The R&I seminar focused on several hot topics that keep Brussels’ R&I community busy this winter and that will most certainly leave their mark on the framework programme: One session featured the progress of the digital decade policy programme and the latest policy developments in the area of artificial intelligence. A panel discussion focused on responsible research cooperation in the context of open science and research infrastructures and discussed research security topics in particular. An additional session on a topic that ranges high on the political agenda in Brussels following the White Paper on dual use R&I included the perspectives from speakers from the EC and the R&I community on research and Innovation in civil security and defence, including dual-use (see SwissCore article). While the EU was in the process of discussing a climate target for 2040, following on the 55% reduction of carbon emissions planned by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels), the R&I seminar provided participants with an overview on European Green Deal related R&I needs and an outlook on upcoming calls.
Thematic parallel session on the ERC and MSCA and on pillar II (partnerships and missions) and III (EIC Accelerator & the New European Innovation Agenda) ensured that the Swiss R&I community remained abreast of the novelties and upcoming developments in these crucial parts of Horizon Europe.