Switzerland has a thriving quantum research and innovation ecosystem. This is in part due to successful participation in the European Framework Programme Horizon 2020 (H2020), in particular the €1 billion Quantum Flagship initiative. In H2020, Swiss entities were involved in about 50% of the grants funded, leading to high visibility of the Swiss quantum ecosystem, opening markets for Swiss companies and helping them to develop their networks.
Although Switzerland can participate as a non-associated Third Country in the majority of collaborative calls in Horizon Europe, this does not apply to most of the quantum technology calls. Moreover, Swiss companies are excluded from accessing EU financial support instruments. The political reasons for this are centred around European strategic autonomy. The unfortunate consequence is that fruitful collaborations begun in H2020 have been severed, creating a lose-lose situation in a global technology race currently led by the USA and China.
The Swiss participation rate in EU grants has dropped to 10% and the impact is being felt by the community. To mitigate the situation, the Federal Government has enacted transitional measures. For example, there was a Swiss National Science Foundation quantum call in the second half of 2022 and the CHF 10 million Swiss Quantum Initiative will support national projects in 2023 and 2024. Although the outlook might seem grim, opportunities for collaborations at the European level and beyond do exist. In 2023 and 2024, there will be 1 Horizon Europe call topic per year for which Swiss entities are eligible. There are also other funding schemes such as QuantERA calls. Finally, successful quantum-related projects involving Swiss entities are still running. Notably, the MIRAQLS project, an EU-Canada collaboration on quantum sensing, involves 13 entities, 4 of which are Swiss.
Author: Loïc Fave, National Contact Point for DigitalIllustration: Alexandra Rosakis
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