Application is now open for the ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships. Interested applicants are encouraged to send their applications in before the deadline date.
About ETH Zurich and Fellowship
A quick history of more than 150 years of ETH Zurich was founded in 1855 as the Federal Polytechnic School and has always been a national educational hub with a global reputation that draws students from all over the world.
New postdoctoral researchers at ETH Zurich are supported by the ETH Fellows Postdoctoral Fellowship program. The initiative aims to support young researchers who have already shown scientific brilliance in the early stages of their careers.
The potential host, must be a professor at ETH Zurich and be prepared to serve as the fellow’s mentor, and the candidate must apply jointly. In each evaluation phase, a professor may only submit one applicant. The host (group) and the ETH Fellow must exhibit strong synergy. Since the fellowships are designed to provide early support for achieving academic independence, candidates who put forth their projects will be given preference. Candidates must develop their ideas, write the application themselves, and the mentor and applicant did not work closely together before the fellowship.
An ETH Fellowship has a two-year limit and cannot be extended. There are a certain number of fellowships available each year, making the fellowship competitive. In the most recent rounds, the success rate was around 25%. All candidates, regardless of gender or background, are highly urged to apply. The institution keep an eye on success rates to prevent biases.
Details about ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships:
Scholarship Sponsor: ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Scholarship Value: Fully Funded
Number of awards: N/A
Study level: Fellowship
Host Institution(s): ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Benefits:
According to ETH rules, the fellowship pays the fellow’s whole salary (100%). The following rates are valid as of 2023:
1 CHF 91,280 = 105,000 CHF.
2 CHF 110,200 CHF 95,860
Total: 187,140 CHF to 215,200 CHF
Budgets must be created using the total rates. They are made up of the 15.0% of social security payments that ETH Zurich will pay. ETH Fellows are also qualified for CHF 10,000 in yearly research expenses, which include both research cost-sharing and travel and mobility expenses. The money for travel and research cannot be used to cover salary costs, and vice versa.
ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships – Eligibility Criteria
A doctorate (Ph.D.) or the completion of a degree within six months must be held by candidates at the time of the application deadline. Doctoral (Ph.D.) applicants must have earned their degrees no more than two years before the application date. The important date is the examination date or the defense/viva voce date.
Candidates who have not yet completed their PhD degree are needed to provide a certification of the anticipated date of their defense, provided by the adviser or department chair. The test or viva must be completed by the time the fellowship starts.
Candidates with PhDs from the University of Zurich or ETH Zurich will not be taken into consideration. In the three years preceding the application deadline, applicants may not have lived or engaged in their primary activity (job, study, etc.) for more than twelve months in Switzerland.
A candidate may not have spent more than six months of the three years before the application deadline doing their primary activity (job, study, etc.) at either ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, a research institute affiliated with the ETH domain (PSI, WSL, Empa, or Eawag), or the University of Zurich.
Candidates must have at least one peer-reviewed scientific publication or their Ph.D. thesis must have won a medal.
Note that: Applications not complying with the eligibility criteria will be rejected on formal grounds.
Interview Date, and Process for ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships
1 September 2023, 17:00 local Swiss time on 7, 8, and 9 November 2023. Candidates will learn if they have been asked to an interview within two months after the deadline. Approximately four months following the proposal deadline, the final grant decisions are announced. ETH Fellows must begin their fellowship at least eight months following the deadline for submissions. If they are unable to meet this deadline, they must ask the Grants Office for permission to begin later.
Application Process for ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships
Applications must be submitted using the ETH Zurich grant application system (eResearch) in pdf format. On this page, under Documents on the right side, you can download the template for the project description.
Application evaluation is the responsibility of the ETH Zurich Research Commission. In the initial phase, proposals are evaluated, and following that, chosen individuals are invited to interviews. The online interview lasts for around 15 minutes. Personal preferences cannot be taken into account.
For further information about the ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships, email ethfellows@sl.ethz.ch. Please carefully study the information available on this website before contacting the institution, notably the Download guidelines (PDF, 190 KB), the DownloadFAQ (PDF, 212 KB), and the How to submit.
The Submission Deadline is: September 1, 2023.