EPFLeaders4impact

MSCA postdoctoral fellowships in sustainable innovation.

Call 3 closed on 1 March 2023. Stay informed about any further calls by joining the mailinglist here.

© EPFL

The fellowship at a glance

EPFLeaders4impact is a new postdoctoral fellowship programme funding talented researchers who have the ambition to provide innovative solutions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The fellowship is addressing researchers in fields ranging from engineering and computer sciences to basic sciences, life sciences, architecture, and digital humanities.

The programme will fund between 40 and 120 fellowships of a duration of 12, 18, 24, or 36 months. Granted applicants will carry out their project at one of the five EPFL campuses and will benefit from a multifaceted training programme, including a collaboration with the non-academic sector.

During the programme, EPFLeaders4impact fellows will be able to take steps towards starting a company based on their own research or to have their proposed innovative solution implemented through a technology transfer to an existing company/organisation.

Download here the EPFLeaders4impact flyer.

EPFLeaders4impact strongly encourages women to apply.

Disciplines

The EPFLeaders4impact fellowship programme is open to applicants in any discipline included in the research areas of EPFL. Applicants are free to choose their project topic, which must address at least one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  

Collaboration

The EPFLeaders4impact fellows will benefit from intersectoral exposure through a mandatory collaboration with a partner from the non-academic sector, which can be a company, an NGO, an international organisation, or a public institution.

EPFLeaders4impact fellows may collaborate with their partner remotely, but visits, short stays, and/or a secondment are strongly encouraged.

Training programme

EPFLeaders4impact fellows will benefit from a dedicated training programme to equip them with a comprehensive set of skills to enhance their scientific excellence, their entrepreneurial capacity, and their leadership potential. The courses are listed in the document “EPFLeaders4impact Leadership Training Programme”.

Duration

Fellowships will be granted for a duration of 12, 18, 24 or 36 months based on the field of research and on the level of development/maturity of the proposed innovation. Depending on the fellowship duration requested by the granted applicants, the programme will fund between 40 and 120 fellowships.

Contribution

The EPFLeaders4impact fellowship consists of a monthly contribution to the salary of the postdoctoral researcher of EUR 2’740. The academic supervisor must complement the EU contribution to the salary of the EPFLeaders4impact fellow (co-funding cannot come from funding schemes requiring time-keeping such as H2020 / Horizon Europe or Innosuisse) and pay for the associated costs (research costs, equipment, travel expenses, conferences, open access publications, etc.).

Location

Research funded by the EPFLeaders4impact programme can only be conducted on the EPFL campuses in Lausanne, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Valais, or Fribourg.

Visits, short stays, and/or a secondment at the non-academic partner are nonetheless strongly encouraged.


Funded by

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101034260.


Contact

Research Office

Av. Auguste-Piccard 1

CH – 1015 Lausanne

[email protected]


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