Researchers in Switzerland can participate in further Horizon Europe calls

As a transitional arrangement for 2025, further calls from the European Research Council (ERC) are open to researchers in Switzerland. This means that researchers from Swiss institutions can apply for prestigious ERC grants in the 2025 programme year of Horizon Europe, the world's largest research programme.

This development strengthens Switzerland's position as a centre of research as well as its global reach. It also represents an important step towards Switzerland's full association to the European Framework Programmes. Association is not only crucial for Swiss research, but also for the Swiss economy.

As part of the transitional arrangement 2024, the ERC Advanced Grant is already open to researchers in Switzerland; the call will close on 29 August. The calls for Starting Grant 2025 and Synergy Grant 2025 will open this summer, while the call for Consolidator Grant 2025 will open in autumn.

Transitional measures no longer necessary

Switzerland was excluded from important areas of Horizon Europe in June 2021. In the autumn of 2021, the SNSF launched its own SNSF Starting Grants, SNSF Consolidator Grants and SNSF Advanced Grants as transitional measures on behalf of the federal government.

Now that Swiss researchers have regained access to the ERC grants mentioned above, the SNSF will not be launching any further calls of this kind in 2025. Existing SNSF grants from previous programme years will be continued.

The SNSF Starting Grants were a special case. They combined the transitional measures with an existing SNSF funding scheme and served to promote early-career researchers who have already distinguished themselves through outstanding research work. The SNSF will once again launch its own funding scheme for these researchers. Further information will be communicated by the SNSF in the coming days.