Better prospects for young talents

To successfully pursue an academic career, researchers generally need to work with their own team. But many academics do not have the necessary resources. For many years, the SNSF awarded SNSF professorships. In 2017, in consultation with the higher education institutions, it created the “Eccellenza” funding scheme to replace the SNSF professorships. With the SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowships, it is continuing its support for talented young researchers who are bringing themselves into position for a professorship. And with the new SNSF Eccellenza Grants it now also supports researchers who already have a tenure track assistant professorship.

“Eccellenza enables us to expand our support for researchers pursuing an academic career,” says Marcel Kullin, head of the Careers division of the SNSF. “This increases the chances of keeping outstanding young researchers in academia and thereby strengthening Swiss research.” Scientists with an Eccellenza award will receive up to 1.5 million francs for a project spanning several years, which they can conduct together with their team. The SNSF plans to award approximately 45 grants in 2018.