The Federal Council approved the Message Education, Research and Innovation ERI 2008-2011 on January 24th, 2007. Bilateral science and technology cooperation programme with priority countries has received for this time period a total budget of CHF 43 million dedicated to R&D. Of this amount, CHF 6.850 million are dedicated to bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Russia.

The State Secretariat, acting on behalf of the Federal Council, is currently conducting negotiations with the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation to finalise a bilateral agreement on cooperation in the fields of science and technology. To date, several consultations have taken place between the Contracting Parties. The last draft defines the objectives and instruments of cooperation as well as priority cooperation fields. It foresees the creation of a Russian-Swiss Joint Working Group responsible for the implementation of the cooperation strategy at the governmental level. The bilateral Agreement is expected to be signed in the coming months.

The following funding instruments are made available even before the signature of the bilateral agreement:
• Faculty Exchange Projects (FE)
• Students Exchange Projects (SE)
• Utilisation of Specific Infrastructure Projects (USI)
• Joint Research Projects (JRP)
A call for proposals is currently open. Submission deadline is 30th of April 2009.

For more information, see: http://www.unige.ch/collaborateurs/recherche/STCP-CH-RU.html

1) Анкета для российской организации по участию в двухсторонних встречах
2) Список итальянских компаний с краткой информацией о каждой из них
Пресс-релиз текст 1.doc