From the 1990s onwards, the Landis & Gyr Foundation was involved in setting up the Institutes for Advanced Study in Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia. Today, its support is confined mainly to the New Europe College (NEC) in Bucharest (since 1994), and to some extent the Center for Advanced Study (CAS) in Sofia (since 2001). As a result of these long-established connections, the Landis & Gyr Foundation has at its disposal living and studio spaces in Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia, where Swiss cultural professionals can stay as part of a residency programme. We also award annual travel grants to help recipients engage more profoundly with the geographical region of East-Central and Southeast Europe.

In turn, writers and translators from that region are given the opportunity to live and work in one of the Foundation’s studio apartments in Zug as part of a residency fellowship. Since the late 1990s, the four apartments in Zug have accommodated more than 150 renowned artists, including Nobel Prize laureates Olga Tokarczuk and László Krasznahorkai, as well as Booker Prize winner Georgi Gospodinov. The city of Zug, the apartment building and its surroundings often find their way into the texts created during these stays. Guests from East-Central and Southeast Europe are personally invited by the Foundation.