Research cooperation strengthened by EU-Switzerland agreement
The European Union and Switzerland have come to a political agreement covering seven areas of future cooperation, including research and technological development. The seven agreements were negotiated as a parcel, where any one agreement can only come into force when all the others are also accepted. The agreement on the free movement of persons still needs ratification by the Member States. Until then, cooperation with Switzerland in R&D will continue as before so that under the Fifth Framework Programme Switzerland will continue to participate on a project by project basis. This means that Swiss researchers can take part in Framework research projects, but receive their funding from Switzerland rather than the European Commission. Once the entire package of agreements has been accepted by Member States, Switzerland will be eligible to become fully associated with Framework 5. In this case, Switzerland will pay a lump sum to the EU and Swiss researchers taking part in the Fifth Framework Programme will receive funding in the same way as EU researchers.
Countries
Switzerland