CREDITS: (GRAPHIC K. FRANKLIN/SCIENCE; (DATA EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCILscience.org SCIENCEF
or most of the 397 early-career scien-
tists who learned last week that they
had received €1.5 million grants, the
first to be awarded under the Euro-
pean Union’s mammoth new funding
program, it was an ecstatic moment, a
chance to launch a lab. But for 28 winners
based in Switzerland and 46 in the United
Kingdom—two countries whose attempts
to join the €95.5 billion Horizon Europe
funding scheme have been thwarted by
broader diplomatic disputes—it has been
bittersweet. To use the awards, the Swiss
researchers need to leave the coun-
try, and the U.K. winners remain in
limbo, uncertain whether the same
condition applies to them.
“It’s a loss for everybody, be-
cause sooner or later the outcomes
of these projects are impacting
on society,” says Lidia Borrell-
Damián, secretary general of Sci-
ence Europe, a Brussels-based
organization that represents Euro-
pean funding agencies.
In June 2021, the European Com-
mission, the executive arm of the
EU, excluded Switzerland from
Horizon Europe after the country
pulled out of talks about an over-
arching treaty with Europe that
would replace more than 120 out-
dated bilateral deals on trade, im-
migration, and other issues. The
Commission is using Swiss mem-
bership in Horizon Europe as a
“bargaining chip” in the broader
talks, says Thomas Jorgensen, se-
nior policy coordinator at the Euro-
pean University Association. “The
choices that have been made are
not helpful to European science.”
Switzerland-based researchers
who won the early-career grants,
which are awarded by the Euro-
pean Research Council (ERC),
have been told they can only re-
ceive the funding if they move
to an institution in the EU or a
non-EU country that has already
joined Horizon Europe, including
Israel, Turkey, and Norway. “This
would mean relocating myself and
finding the most suitable institu-tion in another country, and then starting
from scratch,” says climate historian Heli
Huhtamaa at the University of Bern, who
was awarded an ERC starting grant to
study how past volcanic eruptions influ-
enced climate and human societies.
The Swiss government launched a
backup system for funding successful ap-
plicants who want to stay, so Huhtamaa,
like most of the Switzerland-based award-
ees contacted by Science, says she will
forgo the ERC award, remain in country,
and collect an equivalent award from the
national scheme. The national grants can’t
be transferred to other countries, however,which may limit researchers’ mobility.
What’s more, national funding schemes
aren’t as competitive as their European
counterpart, so the awards don’t carry the
same prestige, says economist Elliott Ash at
ETH Zurich, who was awarded an ERC start-
ing grant to develop artificial intelligence
tools to analyze the behavior of judges. “An
ERC grant opens doors; a national grant
won’t be able to do that,” he says.
Alternate funding schemes must be an
emergency measure rather than a per-
manent solution—or Switzerland-based
researchers risk becoming isolated from
their EU partners and losing valuable re-
search ties, adds Marcel Tanner,
president of the Swiss Academies
of Arts and Sciences. An earlier
ban from EU research funding in
2014—a response to Swiss restric-
tions on immigration—led to a
sharp decrease in the number of
international collaborations led by
Swiss universities, according to a
recent study. They recovered only
after Switzerland regained full ac-
cess to European research funding
in 2017.
A spokesperson for the Swiss
government says joining Horizon
Europe remains Switzerland’s “de-
clared goal.” But Stefanie Walter,
an expert in political science and
international relations at the Uni-
versity of Zurich, says the issues at
stake in the treaty negotiations are
thornier than before. She says the
impasse could last for years, which
will be “really bad” for science.
U.K.-led international projects
also suffered a severe blow after
the nation’s 2016 vote to leave the
EU, the same study found. Qualms
about Brexit may have reduced
the appeal of engaging in partner-
ships with U.K. researchers, says
Benedetto Lepori, an expert in
higher education at the University
of Lugano, who led the research.
“Uncertainty creates a lot of prob-
lems,” he says.
Now, 2 years after Brexit was for-
mally executed, ongoing diplomatic
wrangles are creating a new bar-
rier. Although the United Kingdom
reached a deal in December 2020By Giorgia GuglielmiEUROPEEU grants restrict U.K. and Swiss research
Rules on first grants from Horizon Europe highlight ongoing diplomatic disputes
Greece 1Luxembourg 1Slovenia 1Turkey 2Czech Republic 4Portugal 5Austria 6Denmark 7Finland 8Ireland 8Poland 8Norway 9Belgium 10Sweden 14Israel 19Spain 23Italy 28Switzerland 28Netherlands 44United Kingdom 46France 53Germany 720 25 50 75
Number of granteesNEWS | IN DEPTHLeft in limbo
On 10 January, the European Research Council announced €619 million
in grants to 397 early-career researchers across 22 countries. But
74 grantees based in the United Kingdom and Switzerland are restricted
from using the money because of broader diplomatic disputes.252 21 JANUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6578