European Partnerships and other multilateral initiatives

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The SNSF is participating in European Partnerships and in other multilateral initiatives. They promote consortia activities in research and innovation within Europe and beyond.

The Federal Council plans to reduce the SNSF's budget by 10 percent in 2027 and 11 percent in 2028. As a result, the SNSF will reduce the budget for the European Partnerships and other multilateral initiatives by a quarter from 2026. We very much regret this. You can find more information on the cost-cutting measures here:

“Federal budget cuts: SNSF to adapt its research funding from 2026,” news published 17 September 2025

Integration into networks and transnational cooperation are of great importance for the success of Switzerland as a centre for science. One way of achieving this is to participate in the European Partnerships or other multilateral initiatives, in which funders join forces and jointly launch calls for transnational projects. The projects are funded directly by the participating organisations of the country where the project is based.

Ongoing multilateral initiatives

The SNSF is involved in several initiatives, including those that started before the Horizon Europe framework programme and that continue to launch calls for proposals. Researchers in Switzerland are fully eligible to participate.

European Partnerships

With the launch of Horizon Europe, the various types of multilateral initiatives were brought together under one umbrella: the European Partnerships. Some existing initiatives will continue in their current form through to their completion (e.g. the multilateral initiatives mentioned above), while others have been merged and will continue as partnerships. A number of new thematic partnerships were also launched.

The partnerships bring together a wide range of stakeholders from research, innovation and the private sector to work towards a common goal. In particular, they want to have a social impact and make the best possible use of synergies with other national and regional initiatives.

In 2021, the SNSF analysed all newly launched co-funded European Partnerships in which its membership is a prerequisite for participation by researchers from Switzerland. Within this frame-work, the SNSF investigated where participation will have the greatest impact for the relevant Swiss research community. It also engaged with institutional partners in order to take part in joint or complementary partnerships, depending on the situation. This process led to the selection of a number of European Partnerships, in which the SNSF is now also participating:

  • Participation requirements

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    The participation requirements are regulated separately for the individual initiatives. The same requirements as for SNSF Project funding generally apply.

    Project funding

    For details please refer to the websites of the initiatives (links given above in the text) and to the information on individual calls.

  • How To

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    Research groups wishing to participate in an initiative will find detailed information on submissions in the national annex of the call.

    The SNSF will regularly provide information about calls in these initiatives via its usual communication channels.

  • Documents

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  • News

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