"Stick to Sci­ence": for col­lab­o­ra­tion in re­search free from po­lit­i­cal bar­ri­ers

For over a year now, the Eu­ro­pean re­search and in­no­va­tion com­mu­nity has been call­ing for the full as­so­ci­a­tion of Switzer­land and the United King­dom to Hori­zon Eu­rope. Yet the con­clu­sion of agree­ments is de­layed by po­lit­i­cal dis­cus­sions that are not re­lated to sci­ence. This is hurt­ing the en­tire Eu­ro­pean re­search hub, which is los­ing ground in com­pe­ti­tion with Asia and Amer­ica. In re­sponse, Swiss and British re­search in­sti­tu­tions have launched the "Stick to Sci­ence" ini­tia­tive. It has al­ready been signed by over 300 promi­nent or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­di­vid­u­als from across the Eu­ro­pean re­search and in­no­va­tion com­mu­nity. Among them are Nobel Prize and Fields Medal win­ners, en­tre­pre­neurs and in­no­va­tors, um­brella or­gan­i­sa­tions and in­sti­tu­tions for re­search work and pro­mo­tion, as well as lead­ers from uni­ver­si­ties and re­search in­sti­tu­tions from 34 coun­tries - in­clud­ing 18 EU mem­ber states. economiesu­isse and its mem­bers also fully sup­port this ini­tia­tive.

Rapid full as­so­ci­a­tion is in the in­ter­est of the en­tire Eu­ro­pean re­search hub

Due to non-as­so­ci­a­tion, British and Swiss uni­ver­si­ties which are among the world's lead­ing uni­ver­si­ties can­not par­tic­i­pate in Hori­zon Eu­rope. ETH Zurich, for ex­am­ple, has just been named the fourth best uni­ver­sity in the world in Com­puter Sci­ence by Times Higher Ed­u­ca­tion Rank­ings. Only two Amer­i­can in­sti­tutes and Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity - which is also ex­cluded from Hori­zon Eu­rope - were ranked bet­ter in this area. The EPFL in Lau­sanne is also ranked 19th in both En­gi­neer­ing & Tech­nol­ogy and Com­puter Sci­ence. With the ex­clu­sion of these lead­ing Eu­ro­pean re­search in­sti­tutes, the EU is in­creas­ingly falling be­hind its Amer­i­can and Asian com­peti­tors, es­pe­cially in key areas for the fu­ture dig­i­tal econ­omy. More­over, the rel­e­ga­tion of Eu­ro­pean re­search to the sec­ond di­vi­sion puts in­no­va­tion-dri­ven Eu­ro­pean com­pa­nies at a dis­ad­van­tage vis-à-vis their com­peti­tors from Asia and the USA. This is be­cause the lat­ter ben­e­fit from the re­search re­sults of uni­ver­si­ties close to them and bring them to mar­ket in new prod­ucts.

If as­so­ci­ated, the United King­dom and Switzer­land would con­tribute al­most 19 bil­lion Swiss francs to Hori­zon Eu­rope. This would re­sult in an 18 per cent in­crease in the bud­get avail­able for fund­ing Eu­ro­pean top-level re­search. A soon full as­so­ci­a­tion of the United King­dom and Switzer­land is there­fore in the in­ter­est of the en­tire Eu­ro­pean re­search hub and should not be de­layed by fur­ther po­lit­i­cal gam­bits.

The ini­tia­tive can be sup­ported at the fol­low­ing link: https://​stick-​to-​science.​eu/

Image: Logo of Stick to Sci­ence