Call for Proposals: 2025 Swiss Starting Grant, how to apply

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has announced that the 2025 call for the Starting Grant will open on 15 October 2024, and will close on 15 January 2025. The internal deadline for obtaining institutional support from USI is 1 October 2024.

With CHF 1 million (plus the PI’s salary) for 5 years, the SNSF Starting Grants allow researchers to develop their own research project and lead their research team in Switzerland for 5 years. The call targets researchers who have already shown scientific independence from their PhD supervisor and who have conducted impactful research in their field.

The Starting Grants are open to researchers with or without professorial title. Candidates that have a professorial title must not have received significant fundings ( such as SNSF project grant,  Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant,  Advanced Grant from ERC or SNSF). Candidates must hold a PhD obtained no more than 8 years ago and have at least 2 years of post-doctoral research experience. Candidates must now also show a ink with Switzerland, in the form of one of the followings : a Swiss Master/PhD,  an occupation in Switzerland for at least 2 years or  Swiss nationality.

The internal procedure consists of an interview with the dean and the institute director, as well as with members of the faculty and the rectorate. Candidates that receive the institutional support from the rectorate will be issued the support letter requested by the SNSF. Grantees will be hired as assistant professors without tenure track for the whole duration of the project. The internal deadline to submit your candidature to USI is 1 October 2024.

Below is a list of USI projects funded through the Starting Grant (details can be found here ):

Prof. Arianna Calcinotto, group leader at the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, received an SNSF Starting Grant in 2023 for the project "Dissecting the role of intracellular bacteria and neutrophil heterogeneity in cancer susceptibility and progression."

Prof. Giuditta Cirnigliaro, appointed Assistant Professor at the Institute of Italian Studies in the Faculty of Communication, Culture, and Society as of October 1, 2024, received an SNSF Starting Grant in 2023 at the University of Geneva for the project "Fable, Emblem, Poem, Performance: Renaissance Word and Image Tales."

Prof. Damiano Costa, Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Philosophical Studies at the Faculty of Theology in Lugano, was awarded an SNSF Starting Grant in 2022 for the project "Temporal Existence."

Prof. Arianna Baggiolini, group leader at the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR) and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, received an SNSF Starting Grant in 2023 for the project "Oncogenic Competence at the Cellular and Multicellular Level in Melanoma."

Prof. Michael Multerer, Associate Professor at the Euler Institute in the Faculty of Informatics, was awarded an SNSF Starting Grant in 2022 for the project "Multiresolution methods for unstructured data."