phd funding eth zurich

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Grants Office

Submit eth postdoctoral fellowships.

Information about the scope of this program can be found in the respective " Funding Opportunity " section.

At the time of the submission deadline, applicants must hold a doctorate (PhD) or will complete their doctorate within the next six months. Applicants with the doctorate (PhD) must have obtained it a maximum of two years prior to the submission deadline. The decisive date is the date of the examination or defense/viva voce.

Applicants who have not yet completed their doctorate must submit a certification of the planned date of their defense signed by the advisor or department chair. The examination or defense/viva voce must have been completed by the time the fellowship is started (and no later than six months after the deadline).

Applicants who earned their PhD from ETH Zurich or the University of Zurich will not be considered.

Applicants may not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Switzerland for more than twelve months in the three years immediately before the submission deadline. Applicants may not have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) at either ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, a research institute of the ETH domain (PSI, WSL, Empa and Eawag), or the University of Zurich for more than six months in the three years immediately before the submission deadline.

Applicants need to have at least one scientific publication in a peer-reviewed journal or have been awarded a prize for their doctoral thesis.

Applications not complying with the eligibility criteria will be rejected on formal grounds.

Applications have to be supported by an ETH Zurich professor who is willing to act as the mentor of the fellow. A professor may only submit with one candidate in each evaluation round. Assistant professors must contact the Grants Office before submitting the proposal to ensure their eligibility to act as hosts.

You have to contact the potential host professor early enough. The host has to provide an invitation letter that needs to be uploaded with the application.

Each candidate needs two external reference letters. The referees have to e-mail them directly to the Grants Office, 10 days prior to the submission deadline at the latest. The letters must include a letterhead and the signature of the reference provider.

The fellowship covers the fellow's salary (100%, based on ETH standards). As of 2024, the following rates apply:  

The total rates must be used for budgeting. They include 15.0% social security contributions to be paid by ETH Zurich.

ETH Fellows are also entitled to CHF 10,000 per year for research expenses, including travel/mobility allowances and research cost contributions. The budget allocated for travel and research costs may not be used to cover salary costs, and vice versa.

Applications must be submitted electronically in pdf format using the ETH Zurich grant application system ( eResearch ). The call is usually open in the system about one month before the deadline.

You have to use the templates provided for the project description ( Download project details (DOCX, 29 KB) and Download accompanying information (DOCX, 28 KB) ).

The  ETH Zurich Research Commission  is responsible for the evaluation of applications. In the first step, proposals are evaluated in writing, after which selected candidates are invited to an interview.  

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

The steps required to submit an application in the web-based ETH Zurich grant application system eResearch are outlined below.  

Please note that you can interrupt the processing of the application at any time and resume the work at a later date, provided you do so before the submission deadline. You can find instructions on how to do this at the bottom of the page.

Submitting an application: 

• Download the required Project Description templates ( Download project details (DOCX, 29 KB)  and  Download accompanying information (DOCX, 28 KB) )
• Fill in the Project Description templates (project details and accompanying information) and complete all other required documents. The documents must be converted into a PDF file prior to submission (no password protection).
• Click on “My Applications” in the navigation bar on the left to start a new application. (Alternatively, you can open a new application in the section “New Grant Application” on the homepage.)
• Then click on “New Application”. You will be directed to a page where all open calls are available for selection. The call is usually open in the system about one month before the deadline. Select the funding instrument and click on “Apply”. You will now be in the edit mode of the newly opened application form. Please note the reference number of the application in the upper left corner.
• Fill in all mandatory fields and upload the required attachments (marked with a red dot) by navigating from page to page using the “Next” and “Previous” buttons. Be sure you save the information you entered by clicking “Save”. As soon as all mandatory fields of a page are filled in, the icon in the sidebar on the left will turn green.
• Add the host professor on the “Participants” page. This triggers an automatic e-mail to the respective person with a request to upload the required documents. Only if both you and your host professor have uploaded all required documents and filled in all mandatory fields, the icon in the sidebar of the “Participants” page will turn green. Please note: You have to contact the potential host professor early enough prior to this step to ask if they are willing to support your application.
• Once you have completed the application form, click on “Validation Summary" on the left. The “Validation Summary” page will then list all mandatory fields that have not yet been filled in. Please note that the host professor must also have uploaded their attachments and made their entries before the submission deadline in order for the application to be successfully validated and submitted.
• Fill in the missing fields and validate again. After successful validation, exit the edit mode by clicking “Save And Close”.
• Create a PDF file of your application for your personal records. To do this, click on “View/print” in the grey “PDF the application” box on the right side of the same page.

To interrupt the processing of the application, you must:

• Exit the edit mode of the application by clicking “Save And Close” and then log out on the left side of the page.
• To continue working on an existing application, log in to the platform with your eResearch login details, go to “My Applications” on the left side of the page, and then select the respective application by clicking on the title or on the “View details” icon on the right.
• Click “Edit” on the right side of the application summary page to enter the edit mode. Now proceed to edit your application.

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

If a submission deadline falls on a weekend, it will be postponed to the following Monday, 17:00 Swiss local time.

The interview dates are tied to the deadlines as indicated below and will be conducted via video call. 

Within two months after the deadline, the candidates will be informed whether they are invited to an interview. The final funding decisions are communicated about four months after the submission deadline. ETH Fellows are expected to start their fellowship at the latest eight months after the submission deadline. If they cannot adhere to this date, an approval for a later start must be requested from the Grants Office.

• Download vertical_align_bottom Guidelines  (PDF, 223 KB)
• Download vertical_align_bottom FAQ  (PDF, 251 KB)
• Download vertical_align_bottom Template project description (part 1, project details)  (DOCX, 29 KB)
• Download vertical_align_bottom Template project description (part 2, accompanying information)  (DOCX, 28 KB)
• Download vertical_align_bottom Ethics self-check  (PDF, 362 KB)

ETH Zurich Grants Office Rämistrasse 101 8092 Zurich

Our group typically includes around 4-6 doctoral (PhD) students. Completing a doctorate at ETH Zurich normally takes around 3-4 years of full-time research and education/training. All doctoral students are fully funded in the order of around CHF 3,500/month. This means that we recruit new doctoral students when funding is available (see Open Positions ). Around 70% of a doctoral student’s time-budget is allocated to research, 20% to education/training, and 10% to teaching or other services for the group. Completing a doctorate in our group requires a full-time presence at ETH Zurich.

For more information consult the CIS  PhD program page .

Important Information

• chevron_right Doctoral Studies at D-GESS
• chevron_right ETH's Doctoral Administration

Open Positions

Please check our Open Positions section to see our latest postings.

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ETH for Development  

Eth4d doctoral mentorship grants.

ETH4D provides grants for mentoring doctoral candidates from low- and lower-middle-income countries. The mentorship is a one-year appointment and comprises the following components:

• Mentorship from one ETH professor, senior scientist or postdoc over a period of one year of the mentee’s doctoral studies. We suggest monthly meetings and clearly defined goals of the project, e.g., presentation at a conference, joint publication. ETH mentors are free to serve on the doctoral committee of the ETH4D mentee, but this is not a requirement. 
• Research stay at the mentor’s research group (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) for 1-3 months during the mentorship period. 
• Financial support for attending a conference and/or research material

More information can be found in the Download ETH4D Doctoral Mentorship Programme Criteria document (PDF, 183 KB) . If you wish you read more about the selection criteria, you may do so Download here. (PDF, 50 KB)

For more information about finding a supervisor, see this page . 

The next application deadline is 30 March 2025. Applications will open early 2025.

Grant and application information:

The grant covers expenses up to a maximum of 15k CHF and includes the following:

• Economy roundtrip ticket (max. 2 kCHF) to and from Switzerland for the research stay
• Travel allowance to attend an academic conference
• Research material (e.g. lab equipment) (max 6 kCHF in total).
• Fees for health insurance
• Local transportation
• Accommodation
• Living allowance for the duration of the research stay at ETH Zurich  

Eligible are doctoral candidates who are registered at a university or research institute in a low- and middle-income country according to the external page OECD/DAC list . Priority is given to applications from least-developed, lower-income, and lower-middle income countries.

The application needs to be submitted by the ETH professorship hosting the doctoral candidate. Applications directly submitted by the doctoral candidate will NOT be considered.

• Budget ( Download template budget (XLSX, 15 KB) )
• Project description (see criteria document for points that need to be addressed)
• Motivation letter of the doctoral candidate (1 page)
• Most recent university transcripts 
• CV of doctoral candidate (max. 2 pages) incl. publications
• Two academic reference letters
• Doctoral project proposal (if available)
• Support letter of the hosting ETH professor, including any financial and in-kind contributions
• Work plan for the stay in Zurich in the form of a Gantt chart

Please read the Download Eligibility Criteria and Application Requirements (PDF, 183 KB) before applying.

All application documents must be written in English submitted via the online application form. 

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Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences

Scholarships.