More flexibility for researchers with children

Looking after small children and doing postdoctoral research at the same time is a difficult balancing act. To take some of the pressure off such postdocs, the SNSF has been offering them a 120% Support Grant since 2013. The grant covers external child care costs and pays for a support person to help with the research work.

At the beginning of 2018, the SNSF expanded this funding option, renaming it the Flexibility Grant. Now doctoral students can also benefit from such grants. So can parents whose children are at primary school. The maximum total amount per person per year has been increased to CHF 30,000. “The grant makes it much easier to combine job and family,” says Simona Isler, Gender Equality Representative of the SNSF. “It gives researchers with children a fair chance of holding their own in academic competition.”