Michael Hengartner, President of the ETH Board, recently sounded the alarm: “We are now experiencing the first setbacks,” the molecular biologist and former Rector of the University of Zurich told “SonntagsBlick” about Switzerland’s exclusion from the EU’s Horizon Europe research program. This is the consequence of the failed negotiations on the framework agreement.
Specifically, Hengartner means that researchers in Switzerland can no longer fully benefit from the prestigious funding provided by the “European Research Council” (ERC grants), which are often referred to as the “Champions League” among EU funding.
For Sweden, Switzerland’s woes are now a reason to go on the offensive: “There is now an opportunity for Swedish higher education institutions to recruit leading young European researchers,” the Swedish Research Council writes on its website. The Swedes have set their sights on those 28 researchers from Switzerland who were selected for an ERC grant earlier this year but cannot claim the EU money unless they move to the EU. They are now to move to Sweden.
As motivation, there should also be a good chunk: All Swedish universities that successfully recruit one of the 28 ERC winners from Switzerland will receive around 100,000 Swiss francs (1 million Swedish kronor). The money can be used, for example, to cover the researchers’ commuting costs, their rent or expenses for accompanying family members. Those who can prove by March 31 that they have successfully recruited a top researcher from Switzerland will receive the 100,000 francs for sure.
We should pay more to stay competitive. I think we should poach Sweden researchers with even higher compensations, let’s see who win at this game.
Sweden has a fertility rate of 1.7, Switzerland has a fertility rate of 1.48.
If you are a top-performer and want to have kids, a single-family home, good childcare, parental leave – then Switzerland is unfortunately not a good place anymore.
Question is: how could we lose so much attractiveness? Why got Switzerland such a bad place for people earning between 75k-150k a year?
It‘s actually unbelievable how willing Swiss politicians are to jeopardize Swiss research; and how little people seem to care about it.
The new horizon program has a number of non-EU participants, none of which EU was bullying into accepting any kind of framework agreement, e.g. Turkey, Serbia, Israel, etc. Even UK will likely participate and has a transitional arrangement in place. Switzerland was singled out because EU felt that with some blackmailing they could force Switzerland into an agreement.
What is more interesting is that the EU actually plans to apply “specific agreements” to participation in such programs, i.e. exactly what Switzerland used to have and would like to continue, but for some reason Switzerland is being forced into a framework agreement instead:
> In addition, the EU would like to continue the previous association agreement with third countries such as Switzerland in a new form (so-called “specific agreement”). This does not involve the conclusion of a new Institutional Agreement (i.e. no regulation of institutional issues regarding market access agreements), but rather simpler treatment of Switzerland’s participation in EU Programmes (such as Horizon Europe). Switzerland has always been and continues to be ready to start negotiations for this new form of association agreement immediately.
As a foreign researcher building my career here this is a big issue for my long term goals.
One wonders how good a researcher they will still be after being simmered in boiling water.
Well probably thats a better idea than shooting them. They are lazy bludgers!!!
Well, good luck with that. When I look at the QS ranking, I have to scroll for quite some time to find a Swedish university. 100k is not going to be enough… KTH receives about 25% of the funding of ETH for example. The long-term prospects there are still not comparable.
Nevertheless, the EU’s decision was a shame. Europe is in competition with the US, China etc. when it comes to research. Most researchers would still rather leave for the US than for another European country. What a shame that the EU deliberately chose to weaken collaborations with some of Europe’s best universities and research institutions (ETH, EPFL, University of Zurich, etc.)
I mean if you look how abysmal researchers are treated and paid here it’s a miracle anybody stays in science. How about you start improving working conditions at university?
Yeah, I’d say let them go. ETH is way above anything Swedish in terms of rankings, funding, spin offs etc. It’s not like we’re short on excellent researchers wanting a position here.
European Council will want Switzerland back sooner or later. They’re happy to have the UK. We’re already drafting an agreement with the UK as well.
Using research as a leverage for the framework agreement was a major dick move.
EU = Shit
We need to respond to stay competitive, but I’m not sure just paying them more to stay is the best idea. Sweden will just offer more and more and nobody wins in the end.
What if instead we made it more unappealing to work in Sweden? For example, most people wouldn’t want to be a scientist in Iran, because of Israel.
Sweden? Well, then 60K will go straight to the taxes.
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[Translation by DeepL]
Michael Hengartner, President of the ETH Board, recently sounded the alarm: “We are now experiencing the first setbacks,” the molecular biologist and former Rector of the University of Zurich told “SonntagsBlick” about Switzerland’s exclusion from the EU’s Horizon Europe research program. This is the consequence of the failed negotiations on the framework agreement.
Specifically, Hengartner means that researchers in Switzerland can no longer fully benefit from the prestigious funding provided by the “European Research Council” (ERC grants), which are often referred to as the “Champions League” among EU funding.
For Sweden, Switzerland’s woes are now a reason to go on the offensive: “There is now an opportunity for Swedish higher education institutions to recruit leading young European researchers,” the Swedish Research Council writes on its website. The Swedes have set their sights on those 28 researchers from Switzerland who were selected for an ERC grant earlier this year but cannot claim the EU money unless they move to the EU. They are now to move to Sweden.
As motivation, there should also be a good chunk: All Swedish universities that successfully recruit one of the 28 ERC winners from Switzerland will receive around 100,000 Swiss francs (1 million Swedish kronor). The money can be used, for example, to cover the researchers’ commuting costs, their rent or expenses for accompanying family members. Those who can prove by March 31 that they have successfully recruited a top researcher from Switzerland will receive the 100,000 francs for sure.
We should pay more to stay competitive. I think we should poach Sweden researchers with even higher compensations, let’s see who win at this game.
Sweden has a fertility rate of 1.7, Switzerland has a fertility rate of 1.48.
If you are a top-performer and want to have kids, a single-family home, good childcare, parental leave – then Switzerland is unfortunately not a good place anymore.
Question is: how could we lose so much attractiveness? Why got Switzerland such a bad place for people earning between 75k-150k a year?
It‘s actually unbelievable how willing Swiss politicians are to jeopardize Swiss research; and how little people seem to care about it.
The new horizon program has a number of non-EU participants, none of which EU was bullying into accepting any kind of framework agreement, e.g. Turkey, Serbia, Israel, etc. Even UK will likely participate and has a transitional arrangement in place. Switzerland was singled out because EU felt that with some blackmailing they could force Switzerland into an agreement.
What is more interesting is that the EU actually plans to apply “specific agreements” to participation in such programs, i.e. exactly what Switzerland used to have and would like to continue, but for some reason Switzerland is being forced into a framework agreement instead:
> In addition, the EU would like to continue the previous association agreement with third countries such as Switzerland in a new form (so-called “specific agreement”). This does not involve the conclusion of a new Institutional Agreement (i.e. no regulation of institutional issues regarding market access agreements), but rather simpler treatment of Switzerland’s participation in EU Programmes (such as Horizon Europe). Switzerland has always been and continues to be ready to start negotiations for this new form of association agreement immediately.
Source: https://www.sbfi.admin.ch/sbfi/en/home/research-and-innovation/international-cooperation-r-and-i/eu-framework-programmes-for-research/horizon-europe.html/
As a foreign researcher building my career here this is a big issue for my long term goals.
One wonders how good a researcher they will still be after being simmered in boiling water.
Well probably thats a better idea than shooting them. They are lazy bludgers!!!
Well, good luck with that. When I look at the QS ranking, I have to scroll for quite some time to find a Swedish university. 100k is not going to be enough… KTH receives about 25% of the funding of ETH for example. The long-term prospects there are still not comparable.
Nevertheless, the EU’s decision was a shame. Europe is in competition with the US, China etc. when it comes to research. Most researchers would still rather leave for the US than for another European country. What a shame that the EU deliberately chose to weaken collaborations with some of Europe’s best universities and research institutions (ETH, EPFL, University of Zurich, etc.)
I mean if you look how abysmal researchers are treated and paid here it’s a miracle anybody stays in science. How about you start improving working conditions at university?
Yeah, I’d say let them go. ETH is way above anything Swedish in terms of rankings, funding, spin offs etc. It’s not like we’re short on excellent researchers wanting a position here.
European Council will want Switzerland back sooner or later. They’re happy to have the UK. We’re already drafting an agreement with the UK as well.
Using research as a leverage for the framework agreement was a major dick move.
EU = Shit
We need to respond to stay competitive, but I’m not sure just paying them more to stay is the best idea. Sweden will just offer more and more and nobody wins in the end.
What if instead we made it more unappealing to work in Sweden? For example, most people wouldn’t want to be a scientist in Iran, because of Israel.
Sweden? Well, then 60K will go straight to the taxes.