Switzerland is an important partner of the European Union (EU) in research and innovation. Researchers from Swiss universities and the private sector have participated in the research and innovation framework programmes (FP) since 1987. In the same year, the EU-Switzerland S&T Agreement entered into force. The country has been associated to the EU framework programmes for research since FP 6 in 2004. After a period of partial association, Switzerland became associated to all parts of Horizon 2020 in January 2017.
The country is strongly involved in most European programmes, including CERN, the European Space Agency, COST and EUREKA. Switzerland is also associated to the entire Euratom Research and Training Programme and participates in the activities carried out by the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion for Energy for 2014-2020.
