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ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships – Switzerland

Eth Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships – Switzerland. The applications have to be made jointly by the candidate and the potential host
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October 31, 2023
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Eth Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships – Switzerland

ETH Zurich (German: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich; English: Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) one of the widely, highly ranked and one of the best universities in all of Europe, is a public research university in Zürich, Switzerland. ETH Zurich was founded by the Swiss federal government in 1854, with the stated mission to educate and groom engineers and scientists; the school focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, although its 16 departments span a variety of disciplines and subjects.

The ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (ETH Fellows) is for incoming researchers at ETH Zurich from all over the world. This program is intended to foster and train those who have already shown scientific excellence in their early career.
Awarding Country:  Switzerland
Eligible Countries:  All Nationalities
Program Level:  Postdoctoral Fellowship
Programs: All Subjects available at ETH Zurich
Eligibility Requirements:

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At the time of the submission deadline, the applicant must: –

  1. Hold
  • a PhD Degree

Or

  • Will complete his/her PhD within the next six months
  1. Applicants with PhD must have completed it a maximum of two years before the submission deadline
  2. Applicants who have not yet completed PhD, they must produce and submit a certification of the planned date of their defense signed by their research advisor or departmental head
  3. Applicants who earned their Ph.D. from ETH Zurich or the University of Zurich are not eligible for this award.
  4. Applicants may not have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) at either ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, a research institute of the ETH domain (PSI, WSL, Empa, and Eawag), or the University of Zurich for more than six months in the three years immediately before the submission deadline.
  5. Applicants need to have at least one scientific publication in a peer-reviewed journal or have been awarded a prize for their doctoral thesis.
  6. Applications not fulfilling the above requirements will be rejected on formal grounds.

Application Process:

  • There are two Fellowship Calls for every year March and September.
  • Applications must be submitted electronically in pdf format using the Zurich grant application system https://eresearch.ethz.ch/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f . The templates for the project description (project details and accompanying information) can be downloaded from this page.
  • The applications have to be made jointly by the candidate and the potential host, who must be an ETH Zurich professor and willing to act as the mentor of the fellow. A professor may only submit one candidate in each evaluation round.
  • The (ETH Zurich Research Commission) https://ethz.ch/en/the-eth-zurich/organisation/boards-university-groups-commissions/research-commission.html is responsible for the evaluation of applications. Proposals are assessed in the first step after which selected candidates are invited to interviews which last for 15 minutes.
  • Please reserve interview dates given in Timeline for your submission deadline until you have been assigned a specific date.
  • Individual preferences for interview dates cannot be considered.

(The duration of an ETH Fellowship is two years and cannot be prolonged. The success rate was about 25% in the last round making it competitive).

Time Line:

  • Application submission deadlines are 1 March and 1 September at 17:00 Swiss local time each year.
  • The system opens for applications about one month before each deadline.
  • Within two months after the deadline, the candidates will be informed whether they are invited to an interview.
  • Interview date for 1 March deadline is May (Dates may vary)
  • The interview date for the September deadline is November (Dates may vary)
  • The final funding decisions are made and communicated to successful applicants about four months after the submission deadline.
  • ETH Fellows are expected to start their fellowship at the latest eight months after the submission deadline. If they cannot adhere to this date, approval for a later start must be requested from the Grant office.

(Note: Applications should be prepared well in advance (the application template can be found below) and Potential host professors must be contacted early enough for a better success rate.)

Award Details:

The fellowship covers the fellow’s salary (100%, based on ETH standards). As of 2023, the following rates apply:

  • Year Gross salary                                         Total rates

1                                             CHF 91,280                                          CHF 105,000

2                                              CHF 95,860                                          CHF 110,200

Total                                      CHF 187,140                                        CHF 215,200

  • The total rates must be used for budgeting. They include 15.0% social security contributions to be paid by ETH Zurich.
  • ETH Fellows are also entitled to CHF 10,000 per annum for research expenses, including travel/mobility allowances and research cost contributions. The budget allocated for travel and research costs may not be used to cover salary costs, and vice versa.
ETHFellowsProjectDescription_Part-2ETHFellowsProjectDescription_Part-1ETHFellowsGuidelinesETHFellowsFAQ

Official Link:  ETH Zurich