Switzerland and South Korea to jointly research quantum technologies
Switzerland and South Korea maintain close bilateral relations, of which scientific cooperation forms an important part. The SNSF is supporting ten projects in the field of quantum technologies with almost eight million francs.
Switzerland and South Korea have maintained close bilateral relations for many years. Scientific collaboration is an important component. In the last five years alone, the SNSF has supported almost 70 projects involving Swiss and South Korean researchers.
The Swiss-Korean Innovation Week has become an annual event in Seoul. It serves as a platform for cooperation in research and trade. In addition, the seventh meeting of the Swiss-South Korean Joint Committee on Science and Technology took place in Bern in early February 2026. Both sides were very satisfied with the scientific collaboration.
Ten out of 21 projects will be funded
In 2023, the two countries decided to further strengthen their cooperation, particularly in the areas of digital transformation, biotechnology and quantum sciences and technologies.
The SNSF and its South Korean counterpart, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), subsequently launched another joint call on quantum information science and technology and quantum ethics. A total of 21 projects were submitted. The SNSF will support ten of these over the next four years with 7.8 million Swiss francs. The projects are being funded within the framework of the federal government's bilateral programmes (see box). The NRF will fund the Korean part of the projects with a similar budget.
Among other topics, researchers are working on the further development of fibre optic networks, which form the backbone of modern internet and telecommunications systems.
A South Korean delegation in Switzerland
"During the evaluation of the projects, a South Korean delegation from the NFR visited us in Bern," says Laure Ognois, Head of International Cooperation at the SNSF. "Among other things, they wanted to learn more about the SNSF's new evaluation processes. Another topic was both countries' strategies in quantum technologies." Expectations for this most recent collaboration and the projects' results are very high on both sides.
Bilateral research
The Confederation's bilateral programmes promote cooperation between Switzerland and countries with high scientific potential. For the 2025–2028 period, the SNSF has once again received a mandate from the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) to organise calls for Joint Research Projects (JRPs) together with different countries. The SNSF will fund the Swiss part of the research projects. The projects usually last 3 to 4 years. Similar research costs are covered as under SNSF project funding.