SNSF Starting Grant

You have at least 2 years of research experience and submit your application no more than 8 years after the date of your PhD defence. The eligibility window can be extended for various reasons.  

Please consult the external page SNSF Starting Grants webpage for details regarding eligibility.

Assistant Professorship at ETH Zurich

Successful applicants have (to be able) to become at least Assistant Professor (APntt) at ETH Zurich. Thus please already contact your head of department at the earliest convenience in order to determine your internal eligibility. The application requires a confirmation letter by the Vice President Research that only can be issued by the Grants Office after the department confirms to employ you as an Assistant Professor for the duration of your SNSF Starting Grant.

Support letter

Unlike other SNSF career funding schemes, this application officially only requires a template confirmation letter signed by the Vice President Research. Any other support letters may not be uploaded in the application.
The official confirmation letter only can be issued by the Grants Office after the department confirms to employ you at least as an Assistant Professor (APntt) for the duration of your SNSF Starting Grant. Check the application procedure and respect the internal deadlines.

For applicants who need to finance their own salary, the grant will cover the project funds (max. CHF 1 million over five years) in addition to their salary.
It is also possible to only apply for project funds, if already professor. For applicants with guaranteed salaries, the grant will cover the project funds (max. CHF 1 million over five years). Please refer to the external page SNSF Starting Grants webpage for details regarding funding.

Salary of SNSF Starting Grantee

SNSF Starting Grantees are generally employed as Assistant Professors (APntt). The research team is to be budgeted referring to their career stage on external page mySNF.

The salary depends on research experience and years after PhD. For your budget to be realistic, best discuss this point as well as your employment with your Contact Person and/or contact your personnel consultant.

• The next submission deadline to submit the complete application via external page mySNF is on 15 January 2025.
• The ETH-internal deadline for requesting the general confirmation letter of the VP Research by sending the department confirmation is 20 December 2024.

Please note the following timeline:

• By 20 December 2024: applicants send department confirmation letter, together with the title of the project to the Grants Office ( ). The full proposal is not needed.
• By 10 January 2025: applicants receive the general confirmation from the Grants Office.
• By 15 January 2025: the complete application must be submitted by the applicant to the SNSF via external page mySNF  

Applications have to include a written confirmation of the higher research institution by the Vice President Research, issued by the Grants Office.

The workflow at ETH for procuring these is as follows:

• The applicant requests a confirmation letter from their respective head of department. The department checks eligibility for an assistant professorship with faculty affairs and informs about necessary internal steps.
• Once the letter has been signed by the Head of Department, an electronic copy has to be sent to the Grants Office at .
• The Grants Office will then have the general confirmation signed by the VPR and send it back to the applicant and/or the Contact Person for upload in the external page mySNF.

Submit the complete application via external page mySNF until 15 January 2025.

All important documents (guidelines, templates) are available on the external page SNSF Starting Grants webpage.

You can find a list of previous grantees and granted projects on the external page SNSF Starting Grants webpage (scroll down to Statistics).