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Switzerland associated to Horizon Europe again – new rules as of 1 January 2025


30th January 2025 at 4:17 pm



On 20 December 2024, negotiations were successfully concluded on an agreement on Switzerland’s participation in European research programmes, including Horizon Europe and other EU programmes. Switzerland will become an associated country to these programmes, effective retroactively from 1 January 2025, once the agreement is finalised. Until the signature of the agreement, transitional arrangements are in place to enable Swiss organisations to apply for grants under these programmes.

Switzerland has always been an important partner of the European Union (EU) in research and innovation. Researchers from Swiss universities and the private sector have participated in the research and innovation framework programmes (FP) since 1987. During H2020, when Switzerland was a fully associated country, 10.82% of all funded projects had a Swiss participant. However, Swiss participation has gone down to 9.82% in Horizon Europe.

We are excited to see that after several periods of uncertainty and some changes regarding Switzerland’s participation in the EU’s framework programmes, we are now (almost) back to where we were in Horizon 2020, the predecessor programme – Swiss organisations are eligible for EU funding again and we can expect Swiss participation to increase again.

What does this mean for researchers in Switzerland and Swiss companies?

Under the transitional arrangement, researchers and innovators in Switzerland now have the opportunity to participate in almost all calls for proposals of Horizon Europe and the Euratom programme as beneficiaries, starting from the 2025 programme year. Additionally, and for the very first time, they can also participate in selected calls of the Digital Europe and the EU4Health programmes.

Source: SERI, https://www.sbfi.admin.ch/sbfi/en/home/research-and-innovation.html/

The biggest change is that Swiss organisations can once again act as Project Coordinators, in addition to being a beneficiary. The second biggest change is that for all calls for proposals from the 2025 work programmes onwards, participants in Switzerland must prepare their project proposals as beneficiaries and thus apply for EU funding. This means that the EU contribution must now cover the budgets of all partners, including those from Switzerland. As a practical example, a consortium applying for the Pathfinder-Open call in May 2025 with a project budget of 3 million euro needs to include the Swiss partners’ costs in these 3 million, rather than adding the Swiss costs on top.

In case the bilateral agreement is not signed before the signature of your project-specific EU grant agreement, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) in Switzerland will fully cover the requested EU funding. Hence, Swiss applicants are guaranteed funding.

More information from Horizon Europe experts

What began during the 7th Framework Programme continued through Horizon 2020 and has become a long history of accelopment supporting EU-funded projects. Our enthusiasm remains strong through the 9th Framework Programme Horizon Europe and after having participated in almost 100 EU-funded projects.

Since our foundation, we have been collaborating with more than 1,000 organisations in Switzerland, the EU and beyond. With Switzerland set to become an associated country as of 1 January 2025, we are excited to support Swiss-led consortia and many Swiss organisations in their efforts to participate in future Horizon Europe projects.

Whether you are a researcher in Swiss academic institutions or represent a technology-oriented company, you are welcome to reach out. Together, we can explore new Horizon Europe and other funding opportunities, help you with strategic grant planning or discuss your existing project idea(s) for a new proposal to one of the many upcoming Horizon calls.

Dr. Johannes Ripperger
Research & Innovation Manager