ETH Postdoctoral Fellowships

Applications have to be supported by an ETH Zurich professor who is willing to act as the mentor of the fellow. A professor may only submit with one candidate in each evaluation round. Assistant professors must contact the Grants Office before submitting the proposal to ensure their eligibility to act as hosts.

You have to contact the potential host professor early enough. The host has to provide an invitation letter that needs to be uploaded with the application.

Each candidate needs two external reference letters. The referees have to e-mail them directly to the Grants Office, 10 days prior to the submission deadline at the latest. The letters must include a letterhead and the signature of the reference provider.

Applications must be submitted electronically in pdf format using the ETH Zurich grant application system (eResearch). The call is usually open in the system about one month before the deadline.

You have to use the templates provided for the project description (Download Download project details (DOCX, 29 KB) and Download Download accompanying information (DOCX, 28 KB)).

The ETH Zurich Research Commission is responsible for the evaluation of applications. In the first step, proposals are evaluated in writing, after which selected candidates are invited to an interview.  

The interview takes place online and lasts about 15 minutes. Please reserve all interview dates given above for your submission deadline until you have been assigned a specific date. Individual preferences cannot be considered.

The steps required to submit an application in the web-based ETH Zurich grant application system eResearch are outlined below.  

Please note that you can interrupt the processing of the application at any time and resume the work at a later date, provided you do so before the submission deadline. You can find instructions on how to do this at the bottom of the page.

Submitting an application: 

1. Download the required Project Description templates (Download Download project details (DOCX, 29 KB) and Download Download accompanying information (DOCX, 28 KB))
2. Fill in the Project Description templates (project details and accompanying information) and complete all other required documents. The documents must be converted into a PDF file prior to submission (no password protection).
3. Please register on eResearch and set a password to create an account. ETH Zurich employees have to register with their ETH email address () and set a password as well. This step only needs to be done when using eResearch for the first time. Having registered once, you can log in with your eResearch login details.
4. Click on “My Applications” in the navigation bar on the left to start a new application. (Alternatively, you can open a new application in the section “New Grant Application” on the homepage.)
5. Then click on “New Application”. You will be directed to a page where all open calls are available for selection. The call is usually open in the system about one month before the deadline. Select the funding instrument and click on “Apply”. You will now be in the edit mode of the newly opened application form. Please note the reference number of the application in the upper left corner.
6. Fill in all mandatory fields and upload the required attachments (marked with a red dot) by navigating from page to page using the “Next” and “Previous” buttons. Be sure you save the information you entered by clicking “Save”. As soon as all mandatory fields of a page are filled in, the icon in the sidebar on the left will turn green.
7. Add the host professor on the “Participants” page. This triggers an automatic e-mail to the respective person with a request to upload the required documents. Only if both you and your host professor have uploaded all required documents and filled in all mandatory fields, the icon in the sidebar of the “Participants” page will turn green. Please note: You have to contact the potential host professor early enough prior to this step to ask if they are willing to support your application.
   
8. Add the two reference providers on the “References” page. You must contact the persons yourself and request that the reference letters be sent directly to the Grants Office () 10 days before the deadline at the latest.
9. Once you have completed the application form, click on “Validation Summary" on the left. The “Validation Summary” page will then list all mandatory fields that have not yet been filled in. Please note that the host professor must also have uploaded their attachments and made their entries before the submission deadline in order for the application to be successfully validated and submitted.
10. Fill in the missing fields and validate again. After successful validation, exit the edit mode by clicking “Save And Close”.
11. Submit the application form by clicking on the “Submit” button at the bottom right of the application summary page. Please scroll down if you cannot see the button. Changes are no longer possible after the application has been submitted. If you have submitted an application in error, please contact .
12. Create a PDF file of your application for your personal records. To do this, click on “View/print” in the grey “PDF the application” box on the right side of the same page.

To interrupt the processing of the application, you must:

1. Exit the edit mode of the application by clicking “Save And Close” and then log out on the left side of the page.
   
2. To continue working on an existing application, log in to the platform with your eResearch login details, go to “My Applications” on the left side of the page, and then select the respective application by clicking on the title or on the “View details” icon on the right.
   
3. Click “Edit” on the right side of the application summary page to enter the edit mode. Now proceed to edit your application.