AXA Fellowships

The fellowships are a postdoctoral research stipend for 2 years (up to 140,000 Euro) awarded by the AXA Research Fund, on a specific priority topic stipulated by the AXA Research Fund in the research areas of Climate & Environment, Health, and Socioeconomics. The fellowship should be transformative for the researcher and the advancement of her/his research field. The research project should be characterized by its scientific originality and innovative nature.

Call topic

The topic of the current call is on “Rethinking Social Contracts for the 21^st Century – Demographic Change, Social Protection and Solidarity”. The AXA foundation welcomes interdisciplinary perspectives from fields such as sociology, political science, geopolitics, economics, law, public health, environmental studies, and related disciplines and especially values solution-oriented research that proposes tangible recommendations and outcomes.

For more information, please vist the external page AXA Postdoctoral Fellowship website.

Candidates must have received their doctoral degree (PhD) within a maximum period of 5 1/2 years prior to the submission deadline, with demonstrated scientific excellence and high potential for innovation, transformation, and dissemination.
Candidates must have been awarded their doctorate (PhD) before applying for an AXA Fellowship and must not have a permanent position.
Projects not directly related to the topics of the call are not eligible.

I. ETH Zurich will select one candidate from all applications received to be nominated for the AXA Research Fund Fellowship.

II. AXA Research Fund: The expression of interest (EoI) of the nominated candidate will be registered by ETH Zurich on the AXA Portal. If the EoI is selected by the AXA Research Fund, the candidate may submit a full proposal. The AXA Research Fund will assess the full proposal and select successful applications.

The required application documents for the ETH Zurich internal nomination process are (Step 1):

CV (3 pages max). Please include list of publications, birth date, citizenship, date of defense of doctoral degree (PhD), ETH Zurich host professor/institute.
Research programme's title and description (3000 characters max, including spaces).

Please submit the application as one PDF file to by the given deadline of ETH Zurich.

ETH Zurich internal nomination process:

Step 1: Expression of Interest (EoI) have to be sent to the Grants Office by Tuesday, 29 April 2025, 09:00 Swiss local time.

AXA Research Fund selection process:

Step 2: Between 19 May 2025 and 13 June 2025, 16:00 Paris time: Nominated candidates may be invited to submit their full research proposals and will then receive the necessary information in time to access the application form.
Step 3: Rebuttals are due about 3.5 months after the full proposal submission deadline (24 - 30 September 2025). Results are announced about 2-3 months after the rebuttal (December 2025).
Projects selected for funding are expected to start between January 2026 and September 2026.

external page AXA Postdoctoral Fellowships

Questions and contact

Dr Martine Vernooij

Coordination

ETH Zurich
Grants Office
Rämistrasse 101
8092 Zurich