The Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) has released a statement in which it confirmed that, starting on 15 September, Switzerland will enjoy the status of an Associated Country in the following parts of Horizon 2020:
'Excellent Science' Pillar (Pillar 1), containing the European Research Council, Future and Emerging Technologies, Research Infrastructures and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions;
Actions under the specific objective 'Spreading excellence and widening participation' (Teaming and Twinning);
the Euratom Programme; and
Activities carried out by the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion for Energy for 2014-2020.
The Association Agreement is expected to be in place by December 2014 and apply retroactively to all calls with a deadline on or after 15 September 2014, meaning that it will also cover the 2014 ERC Advanced Grant Call with a deadline on 21 October this year. The partial association status will be valid until end of December 2016, after which Switzerland will be required to put measures in place to allow for free circulation of all EU nationals (including Croatian nationals) to the Alpine country, or the association status will be revoked. 12/09/2014 | 
