Organisational structure

Swiss-Russian Joint Working Group (JWG)

The Intergovernmental Agreement foresees the creation of a Swiss-Russian Joint Working Group on scientific and technological cooperation. As stated in the Agreement, the tasks of the JWG are as follows:

• consideration and coordination of recommendations and proposals on issues concerning the creation of the most favourable conditions for the implementation of scientific and technological cooperation of the Contracting Parties;

• identification of priority areas of cooperation in the framework of the Agreement and development of programmes of cooperation;

• consideration of measures for development of cooperation and enhancement of its efficiency on the basis of the Agreement;

• discussion of other questions of the implementation of the Agreement.

Moreover, the sessions of the JWG take place alternately, i.e., in the Russian Federation and Switzerland on dates to be agreed upon through the diplomatic channels.

The composition of the JWG on the Swiss side include representatives of the Government (SER), of the Leading House, of the Associated Leading House and of the SNSF and the CTI.

The JWG remains virtual as long as the bilateral agreement is not signed.

National Steering Committee (NSC)

A National Steering Committee is created in Switzerland in order to pilot and manage the implementation of the bilateral strategy of cooperation. It is directed by the State Secretary for education and research and is composed of representatives of the LH, the ALH, the SNF, the CTI and Universities of applied sciences. The SER (Bilateral Research Cooperation Unit) is in charge of the administrative coordination of the NSC.

Advisory board

The Advisory board shall comprise scientists of various disciplines and representatives of the private sector. The composition of the advisory board shall vary depending on the field of the evaluated projects. The duties of the Advisory board can be defined as follows:

- Assist the Programme management in the evaluation of projects that are not evaluated by the SNSF (students and professors exchanges, projects oriented on the utilisation of specific infrastructure).

- Provide competencies of the private sector to the evaluation process.

- Assist in the evaluation of annual activity reports of joint research projects.

- Provide strategic and scientific counselling to the National Steering Committee and to the Programme management.

Programme management

The implementation and management of the programme is under the responsibility of the Leading House (LH) - University of Geneva. The LH is supported by an Associated Leading House (ALH) - EPFL. The details of their cooperation are fixed in a contract approved by the State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER).