In order to efficiently and effectively compensate for Switzerland's current third-country status in the Horizon package 2021-2027, the Federal Council has decided on transitional measures for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 calls for proposals. For this purpose, the funds that the Parliament allocated to the Horizon package at the end of 2020 are used. A similar level of funding would have been paid out to project participants in Switzerland in the event of an association to the Horizon package 2021-2027. The transitional measures amount to over CHF 1.85 billion for 2021, 2022 and 2023.
1. General overview of funding
Without association the funds that the Swiss Parliament has earmarked for Switzerland’s yearly mandatory contribution to the Horizon Package are used for transitional measures on a deferred basis. Researchers have access to funds in the same order of magnitude as would be the case with an association.
A.
At the end of 2020, the Swiss Parliament approved funds amounting to over CHF 5 billion as an ‘entrance ticket’ (mandatory contribution to the Horizon Package, plus accompanying measures and reserves) to secure Switzerland's participation in the Horizon package. In the case of an association, the federal government would transfer part of this commitment appropriation to the EU each year as an advance payment for the calls for proposals launched in the same year (Fig. 1 Box A). The European Commission would then provide researchers in Switzerland with project funding for the entire duration of approved multi-year projects.
B.
The funds from the commitment appropriation are currently being used for the transitional measures launched in 2021, 2022 and 2023 instead of being paid to the EU. The funds intended by the Federal Council for transitional measures for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 calls for proposals amount to over CHF 1.85 billion. This corresponds to the expected financial return to Switzerland in the case of an association (for details see Chapter 3).
SERI uses these funds either to pay Swiss researchers directly during the entire multi-year duration of the projects as the EU would have done, or to fund transitional measures through the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Innosuisse and the European Space Agency ESA. From a budgetary point of view, the difference lies in the time lag between SERI’s direct funding compared to Switzerland’s annual payment of the mandatory contribution. So far, SERI has launched transitional measures (TM) for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 calls for proposals. Due to the duration of approved projects, SERI will continue to fund these projects until at least 2033. In order to ensure transparency, the Federal Council has created a new budgetary appropriation (called "Transitional measures Horizon package 2021-2027", SERI/A231.0435) in May 2022. All transitional measures are budgeted for under this umbrella.
There are two types of transitional measures (Fig. 1 Box B):
- Transitional measures for accessible parts of the programme: SERI provides direct funding to researchers and innovators in Switzerland to enable them to take part in collaborative projects. Project participants therefore receive the same funding as if Switzerland were an associated country. However, the funding is being paid by SERI rather than the EU.
- Transitional measures for non-accessible parts of the programme: For non-accessible calls for proposals, SERI provides funding through temporary instruments that are implemented either by SERI itself, the SNSF, Innosuisse or ESA. These measures are based on the respective EU calls for proposals (e.g. SNSF Starting Grants, an SNSF instrument modelled after the European Research Council’s Starting Grants).
C.
The funds that the Swiss Parliament earmarked each year for Switzerland's planned mandatory contribution to the EU are not lost. They are used instead for transitional measures or for a future mandatory contribution to the Horizon-Package. (Fig. 1 Boxes B and C).
Fig. 1: Total overview of the use of funds from the mandatory contribution (PDF, 174 kB, 22.05.2023)
2. Use of funds
SERI funds transitional measures for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 amounting to a total of CHF 1.85 billion.
SERI allocated a total of CHF 1.85 billion in funding for transitional measures for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 calls for proposals. These funds are paid on an ongoing basis to researchers and innovators in Switzerland and to the institutions SNSF, Innosuisse and ESA, as shown below for the already closed budget year 2022. Further payments will follow over the entire duration of the project.
3. Allocation of funds to transitional measures
The federal government provides researchers and innovators in Switzerland with analogous instruments and funding for each programme area.
SERI calculates the allocation of funds for transitional measures according to the expected Swiss participation in the corresponding programme area. In this way, the amount of funding allocated to each of the various transitional measures corresponds to the level of funding that Swiss researchers and innovation stakeholders are likely to have secured from the EU had Switzerland held associated country status (i.e., expected return). The allocation of funds among the transitional measures thus does not necessarily mirror the allocation logic of the EU budget. For example, Switzerland has an above-average success rate in securing mono-beneficiary grants from the European Research Council (ERC) and Accelerator start-up funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC), while the success rates for collaborative projects have been somewhat lower. As a result, Switzerland receives proportionally more funding from these instruments compared to the EU budget when it holds associated country status (see Fig. 3 Box A).
SERI now distributes funding based on the expected return to Switzerland. The previous practice in 2014 was to align the distribution of funds with the EU’s budget, which resulted in higher levels of unutilised funds. Figure 3 Box B shows the distribution of funds to the various transitional measures in 2022 (as an example).
Whilst the described concept of expected return was applied on an annual basis for the 2021 and 2022 transitional measures, this mechanism changes for the 2023 transitional measures. From 2023 onwards the same principle will be applied on the basis of the respective work programmes. The Horizon package is structured such that calls appear in two two-year work programmes (2021/2022, 2023/2024) and one three-year work programme (2025/2026/2027). The current work programme covers the year 2023 and 2024. The funding for the transitional measures is now allocated such that researchers have a similar amount of funds available to them as if Switzerland was associated over the period of the respective work programme. This approach allows to avoid spending peaks and also ensures greater flexibility in the allocation of funds to individual measures over the period of a work programme. It should be emphasised that the principle of expected return still applies, only now spread over two and three years respectively.
4. Current status of funds for the transitional measures 2021, 2022 and 2023
The SERI website provides monthly updates on the status of available and committed funds.
Last updated 03.02.2024
Figure 4 shows the funds for 2021, 2022 and 2023 that have already been allocated to projects (committed funds), compared to the funds intended by the Federal Council for the specific measures (available funds).
For accessible parts of the programme (shown in orange in Fig. 4), SERI provides funding to the Swiss partner directly (direct funding for collaborative projects). For non-accessible parts (shown in blue in Fig. 4), the SNSF, Innosuisse and ESA are assigned with implementing transitional measures; SERI also funds certain measures directly. These measures provide an alternative to the instruments of the Horizon package. They are tailored to the needs of Swiss R&I stakeholders, either by strengthening existing instruments or through specific new calls for proposals.
In the case of direct funding for accessible parts of the programme, it should be noted that SERI receives applications with a time delay, as there can be several months between the result of the project evaluation and the conclusion of a grant agreement between the project partners and the European Commission. SERI has so far received 1500 funding applications, which need to be approved before they are included in the chart below. The chart currently contains 1222 projects.
In the case of measures for non-accessible parts of the programme, which SERI funds through the SNSF, Innosuisse and ESA, reporting takes places periodically. For this reason, the corresponding figures are not yet available for all instruments, although the measures themselves have already been initiated.
5. Payment profile of transitional measures
SERI funds the projects according to their progress and therefore in stages over several years.
If Switzerland was associated to the Horizon package, it would normally pay a yearly mandatory contribution. Switzerland’s payment profile for transitional measures is different. Funds are paid out successively over the entire duration of each project (Fig. 5). Thus, payments are subject to a time lag and extend over a longer period of time (up to ten years after the corresponding call for proposals).
For example, projects receiving direct funding typically start about a year after the corresponding call for proposals has been closed. Researchers receive 50% of project funding at the beginning of the project; after about two years, they receive another 30%. The remaining 20% is disbursed at the end of the project (another two to three years later).
Funds are also paid in instalments over the duration of each project when funding is awarded through SNSF, Innosuisse and ESA transitional measures, in accordance with the Subsidies Act (in German).
Glossary
Planned mandatory contribution to the EU
These are funds that Switzerland would normally pay to the EU each year if Switzerland held associated country status in the Horizon package 2021-2027. Parliament set this at roughly CHF 5.4 billion as part of the federal decree on Swiss participation in the Horizon package. The final amount to be paid depends on association negotiations as well as the EU-CH GDP ratio, the success rate of Swiss project participations and the exchange rate. The funds approved under the federal decree should be understood as an indicative cost ceiling and do not necessarily correspond to the actual expenditure that would be incurred if Switzerland were to secure associated country status.
Commitment appropriation / budgetary appropriation (payment appropriation)
With the commitment appropriation for the Horizon package 2021-2027, the Swiss Parliament has authorised the Federal Council to enter into financial commitments for Swiss participation up to the approved maximum threshold of CHF 5.4 billion (or CHF 6.153 billion including accompanying measures and reserves). However, this commitment does not trigger payments.
In order for payments to be made, budgetary appropriation (payment appropria-tion) is needed. These must be requested annually in the budget and approved by the Swiss Parliament.
Horizon package (2021–2027)
This consists of Horizon Europe, the Euratom programme, the Digital Europe Pro-gramme and participation in the ITER research infrastructure.