Swiss commit to closer UK ties ‘with or without’ Horizon access

A UK-Swiss agreement on research and innovation cooperation will strengthen ties between the two regardless of their relationships with the European Union, a senior diplomat has said. 

Guy Parmelin and George Freeman, the senior Swiss and UK ministers responsible for science, were due to sign the memorandum of understanding on 10 November. The intergovernmental deal expands a similar agreement between their respective research agencies in February this year.

The Swiss ambassador to the UK, Markus Leitner, told Times Higher Education that the deal, which does not commit funds or specify areas for joint working, made sense “with or without” the countries finally joining the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. “It’s a political signal for our institutions to look into possible collaboration where it makes sense to them,” he said. “To say, ‘We see this, Switzerland has expertise in this, we want to work together in this area.’” 

Mr Leitner said the agreement was motivated by a push from researchers and institutions that have grown increasingly impatient over their exclusion from Horizon, rather than an intention to signal to Brussels that the countries were not waiting around for a decision from the European commission.

A more modest February agreement between the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) set aside SFr150,000 (£134,000) for research visits of up to 12 months. Nine researchers have won funding from SNSF and 21 from UKRI. “You could imagine that we have more exchanges of researchers to Switzerland or more Swiss researchers coming to the UK, to have maybe not just travel, but longer-stay research fellows,” said Mr Leiter. 

The ambassador said the broader agreement also opened up the possibility of other academic cooperation, such as new links between the countries’ international student exchange programmes, the Swiss-European Mobility Programme and the Turing Scheme. 

“We still see good numbers of students coming to Switzerland through the Turing scheme; through our own scheme we see good interest from the Swiss as well to come to the UK. We are working on a very solid basis and it’s very encouraging to see things happening,” he said, adding that he hoped such popularity would eventually lead to joint programmes. “What you could imagine is these two schemes work together more closely to say, ‘Let’s find synergies, let’s make things more efficient for this exchange.’ For us, such an exchange would be very much welcome.” 

Talks on a wider, simplified treaty between Switzerland and the EU broke down in May 2021, when the country walked away citing differences over access by EU citizens to Swiss social security benefits, among other issues. 

The home of many multilateral institutions, Switzerland has spent the year-and-a-half since signing a flurry of bilateral deals with major research powers, including an agreement with Israel’s main research funder and a quantum science and technology cooperation agreement with the US. 

Unlike the Westminster government, which has launched legal action over Horizon delays and made reference to mysterious domestic alternatives, Mr Leiter said timing was not a factor in the Swiss approach to Horizon talks. “We don’t have a cut-off date,” he said, adding that the country had not discussed the possibility of an alternative multilateral programme with its partners.

But efforts to even restart wider EU-Swiss talks have been slow, and are still in an “exploratory” phase. “I think we’re moving ahead, we have this proposal on the table, we’re explaining this to the EU, which wants clarification on some points,” said the ambassador, referring to the fifth round of pre-negotiation talks last month.

While both the Swiss and UK governments are still pursuing Horizon association, their non-EU status means they are likely to be locked out of a few calls on topics the bloc considers sensitive for security or economic reasons. “Even if we join Horizon we might still be excluded from certain areas, depending on the status that we have. Quantum, for example. Then it makes sense, if there is traction on both sides, that you have something,” said Mr Leitner, referring to deepened bilateral links.

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com