24th EU/Euratom-Switzerland Joint Research Committee

On 16 October 2019, the EU/Euratom-Switzerland Joint Research Committee meeting was held at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano; the fifth meeting under Horizon 2020. The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Director-General Signe Ratso, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (European Commission) and by Deputy Director-General Philipp Langer, State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

The following points were addressed:

• Switzerland's level of participation in Horizon 2020, which shows that Switzerland is the most active non-EU country, both in terms of participations and EU budget contribution, and has a very high success rate
• Switzerland's very active participation in the research and training programme of Euratom where their association continues in 2019-2020
• Progress made in relation to the ITER project and Fusion for Energy activities, where Switzerland is a key player

In addition, information was provided on Research Infrastructures (RIs), including an update of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), the 2019 Swiss Roadmap for RIs, and the participation of third countries in European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs). Other topics discussed included initiatives in the digital domain such as High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence on the EU side and the Swiss involvement in Horizon 2020 satellite initiatives. The European Commission’s proposal for the next EU framework programme for research and innovation – Horizon Europe (2021-2027) – and the Digital Europe Programme (2021-2017) were also addressed.