The Lead Agency process is aimed at researchers in CH who wish to conduct a cross-border research project with some Eu (e.g AT, B, FR, DE, LUX, POL...) and recently also non-Eu countries (in addition to São Paulo and South Africa, now USA)
A new agreement between the SNSF and the National Science Foundation simplifies cooperation between researchers in Switzerland and USA, after the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concluded in November 2021.
The Lead Agency process is part of the SNSF's project funding scheme: researchers may submit a Lead Agency application if there are no thematic overlaps with applications under evaluation at the SNSF or with ongoing projects.
Weave is a multilateral agreement, which enables collaborative projects under the same framework conditions with all participating countries and simplifies the submission of joint applications by centralising evaluation at a single agency. This scheme enables trilateral projects.
Up until now, eleven European countries or regions have signed the Weave agreement (BE, DEU, HRV, LUX, AT, POL, SWE, SVN, CZE)
