Engineering & Technology | Social & Behavioral Science | Life Sciences | Humanities Postdoctoral

ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships: For Young Researchers

By Meenu Tyagi Jul 07 2023

ETH Zurich Postdoctoral Fellowships

The ETH Zurich Postdoc Fellowship program supports incoming excellent postdoctoral researchers/scientists at ETH Zurich. The program is envisioned to encourage young researchers with demonstrated scientific excellence.

The candidate and the potential host jointly should make applications. The host must be an ETH Zurich professor willing to take the mentorship of the fellow. A professor may only submit one candidate in each evaluation round. Effective synergies between the host (group) and the ETH Fellow must exist. The scholarships are projected as early support toward academic independence and excellence. Therefore, priority will be given to candidates who propose their projects. Thus, it is essential that applicants come up with novel ideas and draft the application themselves and that the candidate and mentor should not have closely collaborated before the fellowship.

Fellowship: An ETH Fellowship lasts two years and cannot be prolonged. The fellowship is competitive, with only a few scholarships available each year.

Qualifications/Eligibility

Applicants must hold a doctorate (Ph.D.) or will complete their doctorate within the next six months.
Applicants with a doctorate (Ph.D.) must have obtained it a maximum of two years before the submission deadline.
Candidates who have not yet completed their Ph.D. should submit a certification of the tentative date of defense signed by the advisor or department chair.
The examination or defense/viva-voce should be complete by the time the fellowship is started.
Applicants who earned their Ph.D. from ETH Zurich or the University of Zurich will not be considered.
Candidates should not have resided or carried out their main activity (work and studies) in ETH Zurich or Switzerland for more than twelve months in the last three years immediately before the closing date.
Applicants should have at least one scientific publication in a reputed peer-reviewed journal or have been awarded a prize for their Ph.D. thesis.

Timeline

Submission time limits are 1 March and 1 September at 17:00 Swiss local time each year.

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

ETH Fellows are entitled to CHF 10,000 annually for research expenses, including travel/mobility allowances and research cost contributions. However, the finances allocated for research and travel should not be used to cover salary costs and vice versa.

Application procedure

Applications should be submitted in pdf format, electronically, by using the ETH grant application system (link given below). The template for the project description can be downloaded from this page (under Documents on the right side).

The ETH Zurich Research Commission is responsible for the evaluation of applications. Proposals are assessed in the first step after which selected candidates are invited to interviews.

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