Swiss participation in Horizon 2020 - IMPORTANT UPDATE

The current status of Switzerland's participation in Horizon 2020 – the partial association – is in place until the 31.12.2016. In this interim solution, Switzerland is fully associated to Pillar I and successful proposals receive EU funding. In Pillars II & III Switzerland is being considered as an industrialised Third Country and is eligible to participate with National funding. This status applies to all grants signed until that date.

For all the grants signed from the 01.01.2017 onwards, the applicable scenario depends on the probable ratification of the protocol extending the free movement of persons to Croatia by the 9th February 2017, which is the objective of the Federal Council. This is likely to be decided by the Parliament in December 2016.

In that case, full association from the 01.01.2017 will be possible. Solutions will be sought to ensure the funding of Swiss partners to accepted proposals and, therefore, there is no reason to step out from proposals.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

considering this situation, from now on SERI recommends researchers in Switzerland to apply to all calls of Horizon 2020 as participants from associated countries. Please be aware of the following recommendations:

- Budgeting: participants from Switzerland have to include their budget in the overall "EC requested funding" in order to receive funding from the EC. They no longer need to insert "0" in the column "requested funding".

- Consortium composition: a consortium must consist of at least 3 organisations from different EU Member States or Associated countries in addition to the Swiss partner. This is to be sure that the project would still be eligible in the case that Switzerland will not be associated as of 2017.

In view of this situation of uncertainty, we strongly advise you to contact us to discuss your situation on a one by one case.

Please also consult the attached SERI factsheet for more details.