Switzerland enhances EU research pool
Co-funding of Regional, National and International Programmes (COFUND) has been instrumental in offering EU funding to render research training and career development more international. In this context, the World Trade Institute (WTI) and its Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) - International Trade Regulation established a COFUND International Trade Fellowship Programme. This was achieved through the EU-funded COFIT (COFUND international trade) project, which offered incoming mobility and reintegration schemes to nationals from eligible countries. Pursuing intensive training and career development objectives, COFIT awarded experienced researchers with incoming and reintegration fellowships to join the WTI and its National Centre of Competence in Trade network. It enhanced transnational mobility within COFUND by attracting fellows from EU Member States or Associated Countries, giving the fellows access to networking relations, expertise, career opportunities and financing possibilities in Switzerland. In total, the project successfully employed four European postdoctoral fellows. Within the first phase of the project, three of these fellows published 2 books, 7 working papers and 22 journal articles. The fellows also benefited from opportunities to travel to countries including China, India, South Africa, Tanzania and the United States in order to present their work under the umbrella of COFIT. Additional publications and research insights have also emerged from the fourth fellow who was hired in the second phase of the project. Importantly, one of these fellows became a professor, another became a senior researcher and the third became a lecturer, taking up prestigious positions and underlining the project’s success. In the meantime, COFIT has gained important experience in retaining research within Europe and hopes to repeat this exercise within the EU's upcoming Framework Programme, Horizon 2020. This has supported further integration of Switzerland into the European Research Area (ERA), cementing its place as a key player in Europe and strengthening its bonds with the EU.
Keywords
Research training, career development, COFUND, COFIT, international trade