The SNSF funds 2000 international projects and fellowships abroad

3000 new projects in 2018

Researchers who wish to receive funding from the SNSF must prevail against their rivals in an evaluation process based on competition. In 2018, the SNSF funded 2958 new projects with a total amount of over 1.1 billion francs, or 385,000 francs on average. Approximately 70 per cent of the money is used to finance the salaries of young researchers. In doing so, the SNSF is promoting the next generation of highly qualified professionals for universities, the private economy and public administration.

At year-end 2018, there were 6500 ongoing SNSF projects, involving 16,300 researchers from universities, the ETH Domain, universities of applied sciences, universities of teacher education and other institutions.

More money for research funding

The Swiss government needs to increase its expenditure for research funding in the coming years. This is the view that Christine Bulliard-Marbach (CVP, Fribourg) and Felix Müri (SVP, Lucerne) from the National Council's Science, Education and Culture Committee (SECC) share with Matthias Egger, the president of the National Research Council of the SNSF. "Research is of key importance to Switzerland," says SECC president Christine Bulliard-Marbach in a conversation published in the "Profile 2018-2019", the SNSF's annual report. Felix Müri says that research expenditure needs to be increased to a certain extent. Matthias Egger brings attention to the fact that the competition is by no means asleep. "China is investing enormous sums in research, while the EU is aiming to double its research budget." Christine Bulliard-Marbach says with conviction: "If Switzerland wants to compete internationally, it has no option than to put the money to do so into the EU’s funding pot, on top of the money the SNSF receives." But how much is financially acceptable? Matthias Egger says: "Israel spends substantially more on research than Switzerland. So we still have plenty of headroom.” But for Felix Müri it is clear that the government isn't going to allocate much more money to research promotion overnight. It just isn't realistic, he says.

Swiss research needs Europe

Horizon Europe, the next European research framework programme, is due to start in 2021. In the annual report, the SNSF Director, Angelika Kalt, explains how important it is for Switzerland to participate. The programme will facilitate cooperation on topics such as health or climate change and focus on innovation, which will open up opportunities for SMEs and start-ups. Competing with the best researchers in Europe is of great importance for Swiss science.

Would our participation in Horizon Europe be at risk if Switzerland and the EU did not sign an institutional framework agreement? The framework agreement is not directly linked to Horizon Europe, says Angelika Kalt. All the same, we could expect serious consequences, she adds. When the mass immigration initiative was accepted in 2014, the EU partially excluded Switzerland from the research framework programme Horizon 2020. For a return to full association, Switzerland had to wait till 2017. The partial exclusion had a harmful effect on research in Switzerland.

"We cannot replace European collaboration and competition with national schemes," says Angelika Kalt. "We need both SNSF funding and European funding: in the absence of national funding, Swiss research would be less competitive. In the absence of European funding, Swiss research would lack international integration and the necessary quality standards."