As projected, the financial statement 2016 shows an income surplus. For the time being, this additional income is to be allocated to the reserves, which will subsequently be used to compensate for the temporary reduction in federal contributions for the 2017–2020 funding period and to guarantee the continuation of research funding.
The growth in federal funding for 2016 strongly influenced the positive results, even though the SNSF was already affected by a credit stop. The lower research funding expenditure compared to 2015 can be attributed to lower costs in programmes and infrastructure, while the reduction in overhead costs is linked to the overhead payments for projects conducted under the ERC Temporary Backup Schemes in the previous year. The higher costs for scientific evaluation are mainly a result of more expenditure on the Research Council, the NRP steering committees and the NCCR review panels.