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Yeah, surely this isn't a move to get some EU funding... And to provide a base for the massive lobbyist team in Brussels.

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1) Why do you think Google needs EU funding for their research ? Last I checked they had one of the largest cash reserves outside the US - which means a lot of it is in the EU, if anything this is a way to smartly spend that cash rather than get taxed repatriating it.

2) The lobbyists can be based in Brussels, Zurich isn't that close to Brussels anyways!

1) Needs? Of course they don't need it. A -lot- of organisations asking for EU funding don't need it.

2) Yeah, but Zurich is a much nicer place than Brussels :) . And most likely not as watched by investigative journalists.

Switzerland is not even in the EU — I think being in the EU is a prerequisite for any EU funding, though :).

Not at all. There is quite a lot of EU funding in Switzerland going on as they are very closely associated. It's been reduced bit in recent yours though because of the political developments in Switzerland.

Anyway, there is also a lot of EU funding in countries much farther removed, see e.g. Horizon 2020 which is the most important EU science fund http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding...

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