Fund your research team at EPFL

BRIDGE Discovery supports experienced researchers to transform their innovative research results into products or services.

• Call information: Link to the memento
• Application toolkit
• BRIDGE Discovery webpage

For postdoctoral researchers (up to 8 years post PhD) to acquire new scientific and transferable skills in the framework of a transnational research project in a European Member State or Horizon Europe associated country.

Call information: Link to the memento

MSCA-PF webpage

For established, leading scientists to conduct a groundbreaking research project.

• Call information: Link to the memento
• ERC AdG webpage

For early-career scientists to conduct grounbreaking research projects.

• Call information: Link to the memento
• ERC StG webpage

For a group of two to maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. One will be designated as the corresponding PI (cPI).

• Call information: Link to the memento
• ERC SyG webpage

For Principal Investigators who have already received an ERC grant and want to explore the commercial and or social potential of the project results.

• Call information: Link to the memento
• ERC PoC webpage

The Gebert Rüf Stiftung mission is to promote Switzerland as a top location for business and as a place to live. It supports impact-oriented entrepreneurial projects in any disciplines, as well as science outreach.

• Deadlines for InnoBooster and Scientainment: 1 February, 1 May, 1 September, 1 December (every year)
• Application Toolkit
• Gebert Rüf Stiftung webpages:
  • InnoBooster webpage
  • Scientainment webpage

Innosuisse helps leverage your innovation: we support science-based innovation projects carried out by companies – particularly SMEs – working with public-sector research partners.

Fondation Leenaards supports people and institutions in the fields of culture, aging and biomedical science in the Lake Geneva region. The annual Leenaards Prize for Translational Medical Research is awarded to collaborative projects, which investigate a clinical problem, linking it to a component of advanced basic research.

• Call information: Link to the memento
• Application Toolkit
• Leenaards webpage

The purpose of our Foundation is to foster medical-biological science by supporting research projects conducted at Swiss universities in the field of medicine and medically oriented biology/biochemistry and by co-funding research fellowships abroad. The Foundation offers funding for research projects, fellowships abroad and young investigators.

• Deadlines: 24 January, 18 April, 12 September every year
• Call information: Link to the memento
• Foundation’s webpage

FreeNovation supports unconventional biomedical research projects with the ultimate aim to provide healthcare solutions for patients.

• Application Toolkit
• Novartis Research Foundation webpage

Your first step towards scientific independence!  The purpose of SNSF Ambizione grants is to enhance researchers’ scientific profile and to help them become scientifically independent in conducting their own research projects.

• EPFL internal deadline: contact your host
• Call information: SNSF Ambizione webpage
• SNSF deadline: 4 November 2025
• Application Toolkit
• Check out this video-interview to get advice from our grantees and professors!

The aim of Spark is to fund the rapid testing or development of novel and unconventional scientific approaches, methods, theories, standards and ideas, etc. It is designed for projects that show unconventional thinking and introduce a unique approach. The focus is on promising ideas of high originality for which preliminary data are not necessarily available (high-risk research).

The SNSF Starting Grants call allows outstanding researchers to lead an independent research project in any disciplines and a team of researchers in CH. It is no longer part of the transitional measures and is distinct from the call ERC Starting Grants.

• Call information: Link to the memento
• EPFL internal deadline: contact your host institute
  
• EPFL Toolkit
• SNSF webpage

SNSF Supplementary measures comprise very specific, targeted funding schemes that are available to grantees of the SNSF if certain conditions are met.

The Swiss Cancer League and the Swiss Cancer Research foundation (SCL/SCR) support basic, clinical, psychosocial and epidemiological research projects on the causes, prevention and treatment of cancer.

• Deadlines: January 31 and July 31 (every year)
• Application Toolkit
• Swiss Cancer webpage

• Department of Energy (DOE) application toolkit
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) application toolkit
• Funding opportunities on Grants.gov

Contact the Research Office to find the right US funding opportunity for you!

The Velux Stiftung supports basic and applied research in the fields of Daylight, Healthy Ageing, Ophthalmology and Forestry. The foundation aims to have an impact on and contribute to sustainable improvement and the benefit of society. This is achieved by supporting the creation of new knowledge through cutting-edge research and the fostering of its application and dissemination. The foundation attains leverage by focusing on projects with a high potential to initiate change and impact.

• Deadlines:
  • Forestry: 23 September 2024
  • Daylight Research: 30 September 2024 and spring 2025
  • Healthy Ageing: 30 September 2024 and spring 2025
  • Ophthalmology: spring 2025
• Application Toolkit
• Velux Stiftung webpage

The ‘Research Program Security‘ is open to all institutions within the ETH Domain through a series of calls for proposals. The goal is to identify and develop innovative ideas and solutions to address current and future security and defense challenges.

• Deadline: 1 December 2025 (17:00 CET)
• Research Program Security webpage

Funding solutions for reducing our energy dependence and carbon footprint as well as leveraging EPFL’s capabilities in research and innovation around Green Energy, Storage and Sustainability and Carbon capture, Usage and Storage to create an excellence area with demonstrators on our Campus and solutions ready for scale-up.

• Deadline: call currently closed
• EPFL Solutions4Sustainability webpage

Gaznat and EPFL have a long-standing strategic cooperation, which involves setting up a competence pole on CO₂ capture, storage, and utilization for the production of synthetic gas. Building on the success of this collaboration, a new framework agreement was signed in December 2024 that involves issuing new calls for research proposals.

• Deadline: call curently closed
• Gaznat Fund webpage

The Research-IDEAS initiative of ZEISS and EPFL aims at fostering a research-oriented industry-academia cooperation by addressing the broader research community at EPFL to connect research with advanced development activities at ZEISS.

• Deadline: call currently closed
• Research-IDEAS webpage

As part of the Engineering for Humanitarian Action Initiative (EHA) initiative, the goal of the Humanitarian Action Fellowship is to explore joint research ideas between ETH Zurich, EPFL and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or to support the ICRC to pilot, use or scale research findings from completed Humanitarian Action Challenges (HAC) projects.

• Deadline: rolling call
• Application toolkit
• Humanitarian Action Fellowship webpage

The International Latsis Foundation grants an EPFL head of unit or a group of heads to support the organization of a scientific symposium.

• Deadline: call currently closed. Next call: March 2026
• Application toolkit
• Latsis Foundation webpage