On Monday 10 November, Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, and Guy Parmelin, Swiss Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, signed the agreement regarding Switzerland’s participation in the Horizon Europe innovation and research framework programme, the Digital Europe programme and the Euratom research and training programme in Bern.
This agreement, which takes retroactive effect from 1 January 2025, enables Swiss researchers and organisations to lead consortia, receive direct funding from the EU and have access to all the thematic pillars and instruments of the programmes. This will enable talent, research infrastructure and industrial capabilities to be pooled.
Switzerland will also become a member of Fusion for Energy starting in 2026, enabling Swiss researchers and industry to contribute to ITER, the world’s most significant international fusion energy project (see EUROPE 13612/31). Association to Erasmus+ is planned for 2027 and with EU4Health once the health agreement has entered into force (see EUROPE 13687/14). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)