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After the exclusion of Switzerland from the European research program Horizon 2020, the country’s scientists, no longer relying too much on Bern, are hoping for support from abroad and are working on a plan B.
Discussions on research collaboration between Switzerland and the EU have stalled.
AFP
Following the exclusion of Switzerland from the Horizon 2020 research program of the European Union (EU), the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) launched a survey among researchers. Objective: to measure the extent of the damage to the Swiss scientific place. If their list is not yet public, Yves Flückiger, president of Swissuniversities, makes a first bitter observation in the “NZZ am Sonntag” of the day: “It’s like an erosion, a slow negative spiral.” If Switzerland is still reaping “the fruits of past policy”, in the fall we will have the first “hard and concrete” figures, according to him. Too late for our researchers, according to the circles concerned who are calling on Bern to find a solution with the EU.
But, “so far, no negotiation of association with Horizon 2020 has been started”, according to SERI. Moreover, several sources of the German-speaking newspaper fear that the Federal Council is procrastinating too much on the European file. He even says to himself that he does not want to decide anything before the 2023 elections. Therefore, the European Commission would probably remain firm vis-à-vis Switzerland on the question of the Horizon 2020 program. because it uses the framework program as a pledge in the blocked negotiations with Great Britain.
German support, French blocking
There is still the hope that some EU countries can influence Brussels so that cooperation in research is dissociated from institutional issues. Annalena Baerbock, German Foreign Minister, would have intervened personally in Brussels in this sense, reported the “Tages-Anzeiger” recently. Austria and Norwegian states also signaled their support. France, on the other hand, which is chairing the EU this year, opposes it. In particular because Switzerland did not want its Rafale combat aircraft.
The European scientific community is also pressing for Brussels to immediately bring Great Britain and Switzerland into Horizon 2020. A call supported by the President of the European Research Council, the German biologist Maria Leptin, interviewed in the “NZZ am Sonntag “.
Bern is working on a plan B in the event of the failure of Switzerland’s association with Horizon 2020, reveals the “NZZ am Sonntag”. SERI has been instructed to examine, if necessary, additional and replacement measures, in addition to the transitional measures already intensively underway in the area of research.
In addition, discussions have been held with Israel and the United States regarding further research cooperation. And British Under-Secretary of State George Freeman, visiting Bern, confirmed such cooperation. According to information from the Sunday newspaper, the British have set a deadline for the EU until the summer to decide on its participation in Horizon 2020, not wanting to wait any longer to find an agreement. Otherwise, they will develop their own research cooperation.
Switzerland will still wait until 2023. “After that, it will hardly be worth the effort to commit to the seven-year program”, notes a person involved. If, according to her, the replacement measures can never completely replace the prestigious Horizon program, they could prevent Switzerland from being subjected to such pressure again next time.
Instead of the usual success stories of Swiss research, we are beginning to tell “stories of failure”, reports the NZZ on Sunday. Scientists from our universities lose the coordination of international research projects. Others leave Switzerland to be able to participate in European projects, as do start-ups from higher education institutions. And foreign researchers no longer want to come to Switzerland.
Among the “victims”, Dimitri Konstantas, director of the Institute of Information Sciences at the University of Geneva who is conducting research on the use of autonomous vehicles in public transport with European partners. However, now the direction of his project passes from Geneva to Germany, to Deutsche Bahn. “We are losing prestige, part of the money and control of the project,” he laments in the Zurich newspaper.