Young researchers
ETH Zurich puts great value on the early independence of doctoral students, postdocs, and other early-career researchers. Below you will find an overview of the most important career and project funding instruments for young researchers, including those which are specific to ETH Zurich.
Funding types
Funding instruments are commonly divided into two types. Find out which one suits you best!
- Career funding is personal and non-transferable. Its main purpose is to provide a salary for a single researcher (fellowship) or student (scholarship) at an early stage of their career (Master student, doctoral student, postdoc).
- Project funding is intended to finance material costs and salaries of project members apart from the PI. Since this PI is typically already employed at a research institution and receives a salary from there, this type of funding is generally associated with professors. However, there are also instruments for doctoral and postdoctoral project funding.
Funding instruments
- Fund your Master's studies with the Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme (ESOP)
- Commercialise results of your Master's thesis or dissertation with an ETH Pioneer Fellowship.
- Come to ETH with a external pageSwiss Government Excellence Scholarship for doctoral students.
- Interested in interdisciplinary AI research? Come to ETH with an AI Center PhD Fellowship.
- Improve life in developing countries through research - with the help of an E4D Doctoral Scholarship.
- Doctoral students may organise their own ETH-EPFL Summer School.
- Flesh out your idea for a product with external pageBRIDGE Proof of Concept.
- Bring your science to the market or collaborate with industry through external pageInnosuisse Innovation Projects.
- Come to Switzerland with a external pageSwiss Government Excellence Scholarship for postdocs.
- Come to ETH Zurich and lay the foundation for a successful academic career with an ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship.
- Independent projects by postdocs at ETH Zurich can be supported by an ETH Career Seed Awards.
- The SNSF instrument external pageSpark is meant for the rapid testing of unconventional ideas. Open to postdocs!
- Interested in interdisciplinary AI research? Come to ETH with an AI Center Postdoctoral Fellowship.
- The NOMIS– ETH Fellowship Programme is intended to foster young interdisciplinary researchers in the field of the origin and prevalence of life.
- Medical doctors willing to deepen their research knowledge can apply for an ETH MedLab Fellowship.
- Generous support for your own postdoctoral project anywhere in the world: the external pageBranco Weiss Fellowships - Society in Science
- With the Early-Career Fellowships, the Collegium Helveticum supports outstandingly promising young academics and artists who wants to cross disciplinary boundaries with their work in an unconventional way.
- The AXA Research fund regularly issues external pagecalls for AXA Fellowships in varying fields. Information on the nomination process at ETH Zurich can be found here.
- The external pageSchmidt Science postdoctoral fellowships (1-2 yrs) are for applicants to pursue innovative research with a disciplinary departure from the doctoral studies to establish interdisciplinary lines of research. Information on the nomination process at ETH Zurich can be found here.
- Finance a research stay abroad with external pageSNSF Postdoc.Mobility.
- Transnational mobility is at the core of the EU's external pageMarie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowships which primarily target postdocs. Following Switzerland’s non-association to Horizon Europe as of 2021, early-career researchers with destination Switzerland are not eligible to apply for monobeneficiary schemes such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) individual postdoctoral fellowship. The SNSF is therefore offering a comparable call (external pageSNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships (SPF)) for proposals as part of the transitional measures.
- Flesh out your idea for a product with external pageBRIDGE Proof of Concept.
- Bring your science to the market or collaborate with industry through external pageInnosuisse Innovation Projects.
- Mount your first larger project with external pageSNSF Ambizione.
- Mount your first larger project with external pageSNSF Ambizione or with an external pageERC Starting Grant
- More experienced researchers may submit proposals for projects framed by a external pageNational Research Programme (NRP). Each call has a specific topical focus.
- The external pageSNSF's Professioral Fellowships are a stepping stone towards a professorship.
- Advanced senior researchers may be interested in an external pageERC Consolidator Grant.
- Explore the innovation potential of your research findings with external pageBRIDGE Discovery.
- Bring your science to the market or collaborate with industry through external pageInnosuisse Innovation Projects.
Opportunity finder
There are more options for funding than you might think. Projects, fellowships, travels, equipment - you name it. Check out external pageResearch Professional, a comprehensive database of funding schemes that is freely accessible to ETH researchers (on campus or via VPN).
external page2-min YouTube guide on how to use the search function
external page2-min YouTube tutorial on saving searchers and creating email alerts
The central platform of external pageresearch.swiss aims to facilitate collaboration in research and innovation by providing researchers, higher education institutions and innovators with a unique overview of the most important funding instruments, calls for joint research projects and mobility programmes.