The countries of Southeastern Europe inherited many structural problems in the field, including a largely obsolete research and technology infrastructure and a dearth of industrial demand for applied research, combined with low research and development spending by businesses, a brain drain, fragmentation of the research system and a lack of linkage among industry and research sectors.

The Scientific Co-operation between Eastern Europe and Switzerland (SCOPES) programme, which the Swisss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation bankroll, aims to boost scientific co-operation with research groups in Switzerland, as well as to support institutional partnerships with scientific establishments in the target regions.

The Joint Research Projects element pairs groups of scientists from Eastern Europe with partners in Switzerland to conduct specific research aimed at expanding the boundaries of knowledge. The second element, Institutional Partnerships, aims at modernising the research environment to aid the successful completion of research.

These two elements receive supplemental help from Conference Grants -- which allow Eastern European researchers to attend international scientific conferences in Switzerland. Such participation fortifies the international networking that is a precondition for a successful career in research. SCOPES also awards Valorisation Grants to help translate the results of the Joint Research Projects and the Institutional Partnerships into practice.

A call for SCOPES 2009-2011 has been launched in December 2008; the first projects will be able to start next autumn, a second call for proposals is planned for 2010. A total of CHF 16 million are available for the programme. As before, the following instruments are included: Joint Research Projects, Institutional Partnerships, Conference Grants, Preliminary and Valorisation Grants. There are no specific thematic requirements. However, the projects must, besides having scientific quality, show potential for application and development possibilities (capacity building) for the Eastern European partner(s).

Partner countries are sub-divided into two categories: a first group (West Balkan States, South Caucasus and Central Asia as well as Moldavia and the Ukraine), which is also eligible for bi-lateral programmes, and a second group (Eastern European members of the EU as well as Croatia and Russia), eligible for tri- and multilateral partnerships (whereby at least half of the Eastern partners must be from the first category). Research costs are only covered for the Eastern European side.

For further information, please visit http://www.snf.ch/E/international/abroad/scopes/Pages/default.aspx