Transitional measures 2021–2024 for the Horizon package
To minimise the consequences of Switzerland's third country status in the Horizon package, the Federal Council decided on transitional measures for the years 2021–2024. For this purpose, CHF 2.6 billion was made available, which SERI either pays out directly to project participants or distributes via the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Innosuisse and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Accessible and non-accessible parts of the programme
The transitional measures consist of two components:
Transitional measures for accessible parts of the programme
With non-associated country status, participation in most collaborative projects is possible, but without funding from the EU. SERI directly finances the budget share of the project participants in Switzerland.
Transitional measures for non-accessible programme components
For non-accessible calls for proposals, namely mono-beneficiary projects and collaborative projects in strategic areas, SERI provides funding through instruments that are implemented either by SERI itself, the SNSF, Innosuisse or the ESA. These measures are based on the respective EU calls for proposals.
Funding
The funding allocated by Parliament at the end of 2020 to fund Switzerland's participation in the 2021–2027 Horizon package is used for the 2021–2024 transitional measures. In the event of association, a similar amount would be paid out to project participants in Switzerland via the EU: to this end, the federal government transfers a mandatory contribution to the EU each year as an advance payment for those calls for proposals that take place in the same year. The European Commission then funds researchers and innovators in Switzerland whose projects have been positively evaluated for their entire duration. In the event of non-association, these funds do not go to the EU, but are used for transitional measures, subject to the budgetary decisions of Parliament. The total budget for the 2021–2024 calls for proposals amounts to CHF 2.6 billion, of which CHF 1.8 billion are allocated to direct funding at SERI and CHF 0.8 billion to measures for non-accessible parts of the programme at SERI, SNSF, Innosuisse and ESA.
Current status of the use of funds
SERI has received 2492 funding applications to date (as of 17.10.2025). Of these, 2269 projects have already been approved. The chart below shows the status of the use of funds for 2021 to 2024 and compares the funding already committed to projects (committed funds) with the maximum funds made available by the Federal Council for the mono-beneficiary measures (available funds).
- In the case of transitional measures for accessible parts of the programme (shown in orange in the figure), it should be noted that SERI receives applications with a delay, as there are several months between the evaluation result and the conclusion of a funding agreement.
- In the case of transitional measures for non-accessible parts of the programme (shown in blue), for which SERI has commissioned the SNSF, Innosuisse and the ESA, reporting takes place periodically. For this reason, the corresponding figures are not yet available for all instruments, although the measures have already been introduced.
Order of priority for direct funding requests 2021–2024
Although the EU calls for proposals for 2021–2024 are now closed, in some cases project evaluation and contract preparation between the consortia and the European Commission are still ongoing. As a result, SERI is still receiving funding requests in relation to 2021–2024 calls. The volume of funding requests, including those already submitted and those anticipated, is very high. It is expected that the requested funding will exceed the available funds. For this reason, and pursuant to the relevant Ordinance, SERI applies measures based on an order of priority to all pending funding requests in relation to 2021–2024 calls. Currently measures 1) – 5) in place: