In April 2022, participating in the research programme Horizon Europe seemed a distant prospect for both Switzerland and the UK. | Image: Tim Hammond / Keystone

With Brexit disputes on the one hand, and Switzerland’s failed EU framework agreement on the other, it meant that for a while, the UK and Switzerland were both outside the large-scale Horizon Europe research funding programme. But once the UK and the EU were able to agree a deal on implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol in late February 2023, Switzerland was again out on its own.

“A potential ally for a ‘Plan B’ has been lost”, said Eva Herzog, a member of the Swiss Socialist Party in the Basel Council of States, in conversation with NZZ Magazine. The collaboration that Switzerland had planned with the UK in 2022 has lost its significance. According to Luciana Vaccaro of swissuniversities, this was in any case only Switzerland’s second choice. At least Christian Ehler, a German member of the European Parliament, remains optimistic. In an interview with the online magazine Science Business, he said: “It will be possible for Switzerland and the EU to come together too, for the sake of Europe!”