Non-association in Horizon 2020: enter and collect data on the impacts!
The Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS) and the SNSF have jointly initiated the collection of data with regard to Switzerland's non-association in Horizon 2020. The aim is to gain information about the impacts on research in Switzerland. The initiators are counting on the support and participation of the science community.
Non-association in the European research programme Horizon 2020 puts research in Switzerland under pressure. One of the immediate impacts has been the exclusion of researchers at Swiss institutions from the funding schemes of the European Research Council (ERC). While a solution to this must be found at the political level, the science community, too, can contribute to the debate.
Facts speak for themselves
The arguments of scientists are typically based on facts. Taking this as its starting point, the science community should make a concerted effort to enter comprehensive and precise data on the negative and - if any - the positive impacts of the non-association in Horizon 2020. What are the consequences with regard to research funding, researchers and institutions? Not everything will be reducible to data, which is why effects that are not directly quantifiable are also of interest.
The CRUS and the SNSF are counting on researchers to contribute! Meaningful data can only be obtained if there are a large number of participants. Entries can be made in the database set up for the collection.
All data entered will be treated as confidential and only used in aggregated form. Institutions and/or researchers will only be quoted with their explicit permission.
The information derived from the data collection will be used by the members of Netzwerk FUTURE (SNSF, CRUS, KFH, COHEP, Academies of Arts and Sciences) and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Plans have already been made for the entry of further data in the winter semester.