The State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) within the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research EAER is the federal government's specialized agency for national and international matters concerning education, research, and innovation policy.
On 18 October 2011, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and the GCE signed an agreement of collaboration. In 2020, the SERI extended the agreement until 31 December 2024. The following stipulations form the core of the agreement between the SERI and the GCE:
The Landis & Gyr Foundation was established in 1971 by the Gyr family and the Landis & Gyr Group to mark the 75th anniversary of the company, which was founded in Zug in 1896. For the past 47 years, the Foundation has been supporting projects in culture and the humanities at a regional, Swiss and European level. The fellowships awarded for a residency in London, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia (since 2017), Zug and Berlin (until 2016) have formed a major part of the Foundation’s work for nearly 30 years. In the early 1990s, the Foundation also began fostering cultural exchange with Eastern European countries and supporting individual projects in the humanities. In 2014, the Foundation then introduced its new, project-specific travel grants for the Balkans and Turkey, the place of origin of many immigrants in Switzerland.
Since its establishment, the Landis & Gyr Foundation has focused its funding activities on cultural projects primarily in the following areas:
The Landis & Gyr Foundation began its work in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, with an exclusive focus on supporting the Institutes for Advanced Study in the humanities.
The Landis & Gyr Foundation played a key role in establishing the Institutes for Advanced Study in Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia. Today, the Foundation’s support is directed mainly to the New Europe College (NEC) in Bucharest and, to a smaller degree, to the Center for Advanced Study CAS in Sofia.