How did the SNSF's transitional measures differ from European calls?
Between 2021 and 2024, the SNSF introduced measures to compensate for the exclusion of Swiss researchers from the Horizon Europe programme. Our analysis reveals differences between the SNSF and the European Research Council.
Following Switzerland's exclusion from certain parts of the Horizon Europe programme, from 2021 to 2024, the SNSF implemented several transitional measures on behalf of the Swiss Confederation: SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships, SNSF Starting Grants, SNSF Consolidator Grants and SNSF Advanced Grants. The aim was to support Swiss researchers during this challenging period.
Swiss researchers submitted more applications to almost all of the SNSF transitional measures than they had previously to European calls. The very high number of applications and the fact that fewer financial resources were available than at the European level resulted in lower success rates.