Federal Councilor Jay Parmelin was also present at the signing, on the last leg of his foreign trip. KEYSTONE / AP / Jacqueline Martin sda-ats
This content was published on Nov 20, 2021 – 10:07 AM
(Keystone-SDA)
Switzerland and the United States laid the foundations for enhanced research collaboration.
Under the eyes of Federation President Guy Parmelin, President of the Swiss National Fund (SNF), Matthias Egger, and President of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Sithuraman Panchanathan, signed a declaration of intent yesterday in Washington. in this meaning.
“The United States is already Switzerland’s main partner in bilateral research cooperation. With this agreement, we are writing a new page in our success story,” Parmelin said, in a note from the Federal Administration for Economics, Training and Research (EAER). . For the Federal Councilor, this was the last commitment on his overseas trip.
The first novelty of the Declaration of Intent is that in the case of joint projects, researchers in the Consortium and the USA will be able to submit a single application for funding. The project will be evaluated by the FNS or the NSF and no longer – as in the past – by both organisations. So far, Switzerland has already signed agreements of this kind with several European countries, with South Africa and with the Sao Paulo region of Brazil, according to EAER.
About 15% of scientific publications in Switzerland are the result of cooperation with the United States. Moreover, since 2016, FNS has financed more than 5,000 projects with the participation of a star and a planned partner.
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