Swiss rector elected chair of research universities group

SwissInfo.ch 25 May 2022

University of Geneva Rector Yves Flückiger has been elected chair of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). The move comes at a time of uncertainty over Switzerland’s future in the European research funding programme Horizon Europe, reports SwissInfo.ch.

“I am pleased and honoured to take on the role of LERU chair,” said Flückiger, who is also president of the swissuniversities, the sector’s umbrella body in Switzerland, in a statement on Saturday 21 May. “Over the past two decades, LERU has done outstanding work to advance the interests of frontier research, innovation and education in Europe, and I fully intend to continue doing so, notwithstanding the many challenges currently facing it both inside and outside Europe,” he added.

Switzerland is currently locked out of the European Union’s €95 billion (US$101 billion) Horizon Europe research funding programme – the largest of its kind worldwide – having been relegated to non-associated status. This followed Switzerland’s decision in 2021 to pull the plug on a draft treaty binding it more tightly to the European bloc.
Full report on the SwissInfo.ch site

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