A meeting to strengthen Franco-Swiss relationships in the fields of higher education and research

On 29 November 2013, a meeting related to university and scientific cooperation between Switzerland and France was organised by the French embassy in Switzerland and the Campus France Agency at the University of Bern. In the context of increasing internationalisation of research and higher education, a number of representatives from French and Swiss higher education organisations were gathered in order to strengthen the already existing relationships.

Farid Ouabdesselam, Advisor to ANR’s Director General, participated in the meeting alongside Mrs Béatrice Ferrari, Scientific advisor to the State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation in Switzerland. They spoke about the latest developments in the national policies in terms of higher education and research, in the context of the internationalisation of French and Swiss systems.

France is Switzerland’s third most important partner

In the field of research, Switzerland is an outward oriented country as almost 70% of collaborative projects are carried out with teams from foreign countries. France is a key partner: it is indeed Switzerland 3rd partner in terms of collaborations.

The existing collaboration between ANR and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) plays an important and structuring role in the development of partnerships between teams from both countries, and it should reinforce those partnerships even more. In 2014, in the framework of the opening of its generic call for proposals to international collaborations, ANR and SNSF agreed on the lead agency principle based on transparency and mutual trust between both funding agencies. The lead agency is in charge of the evaluation, peer review and selection of projects on behalf of both countries.

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