Research supervisors

For important information on supervising scholarship holders, see the information sheet Download "Will you be my supervisor?" (PDF, 126 KB). Supervisors of scholarship holders should in principle have the following position at ETH Zurich:

• Full professors
• Associate professors
• Assistant professors
• SNSF-​​sponsored professors working
  
• Adjunct professors

At the research institutes in the ETH domain (Eawag, Empa, PSI, WSL), supervisors for FCS visiting students should have the above-mentioned position or a co-supervisor with the corresponding position at ETH Zurich should co-sign the letter of confirmation for the application. For postdoctoral scholars supervisors who do not hold the above-mentioned position but who are allowed to supervise postdoctoral scholars in their role at the research institutes are also eligible to issue a letter of confirmation for the application.

For the supervision of ETH doctoral students, the mandatory requirements for the supervision of a dissertation is published on the website of the Doctoral Administration. If additional approvals need to be obtained, the relevant clarifications should take place before a letter of confirmation for the application is issued.

For the research stay the following points, as a minimum, should be clarified before you issue a letter of invitation for the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship application:

1. The candidate’s academic competence
2. The quality of the research project
3. The candidate’s language proficiency
4. For doctoral students:

• Advance clarification by the Doctoral Administration as to whether the potential candidate can be admitted to undertake a doctorate at ETH Zurich, and if yes, what the prospective admissions requirements might be
• Financing the doctorate:

The Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship amount lies below ETH Zurich standards of remuneration for doctoral students. In addition, the normal time to complete a doctorate at ETH Zurich usually exceeds the maximum duration of the scholarship (36 months).

Supervisors of doctoral students whoenter the doctoral programme on a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship  are required to top up the scholarship with a part-time job appointment, funded by the professorship’s resources, which raises total funds to at least the level of the lowest ETH doctoral student salary.

Following the maximum scholarship period of 36 months supervisors are also required to employ the doctoral student on a full-time basis such that total funds reach at least the level of the lowest ETH doctoral student salary until prospective completion of the thesis. The Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship terminates after 36 months.

The stipulations governing Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship funding of doctoral studies at ETH Zurich apply analogously to Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship funding of doctoral students at the research institutions of the ETH domain (Eawag, Empa, PSI, WSL).