Switzerland faces ‘exodus’ of researchers

Academics in the country will have to move to accept new European Research Council grants

Switzerland is in a “problematic” situation after being made ineligible to host new European Research Council grant holders, and could see “an exodus” of top-quality researchers as a result, academics have warned.

Only institutions in EU member states or countries ‘associated’ to the EU R&D programme can host most ERC grants. Switzerland was associated to the bloc’s 2014-20 programme, but the European Commission left it off a list of countries provisionally associated to the 2021-27 version, Horizon Europe, after the Swiss government dropped talks with the EU on their relationship in May.