Ambizione Grants Program 2018, Switzerland

Ambizione Grants Program 2018, Switzerland

Your first step towards scientific independence!

• Applicants must hold a Doctorate (PhD) or have completed their medical studies (Staatsexamen or equivalent exam).
• Applications may be submitted no later than four years after completing the doctorate (PhD). The date of the examination, respectively the defence of the doctoral thesis is the relevant date.
• Applicants who have completed their medical exam and have done clinical work for at least three years after completing their studies (specialist certification by the FMH is an advantage) may submit an application no later than 9 years after completion of the medical exam.
• Research activities of at least 12 months after the doctorate (PhD), respectively after the medical exam undertaken at an institution different from the one where the doctorate was obtained, respectively the medical degree was received.

Preparing an application

Some parts of the application can be prepared in advance and uploaded as PDF documents once your account has been activated. This applies, in particular, to the research plan, the CV and the publication list. Please enter all other data online in mySNF, in particular administrative and financial data.

For Ambizione applications, your proposal must include a data management plan (DMP). The content of the DMP has to be directly entered in the mySNF submission form. It is not possible to upload a DMP as a separate PDF file. Applicants must enter a DMP that is understandable, suits their project and meets the standards set by their research community. At this stage, the DMP is considered a draft and excluded from the evaluation process. The definitive DMP must be provided by the end of the project at the latest. Please keep in mind during the submission procedure that the preparation of the DMP may possibly take a few hours.

Submitting an application

Applications need to be submitted online via mySNF by the relevant deadline by 17.00h Swiss local time. Submission deadlines vary depending on the funding scheme. On mySNF, help texts offer basic advice on entering data online. The Administrative Offices of the SNSF examine whether the formal and personal requirements are met, contact applicants if necessary and, if everything is in order, forward the application for scientific evaluation.

Evaluation procedure and decision

The evaluation procedure is explained under Evaluation procedure: Careers (generally valid aspects) and in the regulations on specific schemes. The final decisions are communicated to applicants in the form of a ruling two to ten months after the submission deadline (depending on whether it is a one-stage or a two-stage procedure).

Ambizione grant

An Ambizione grant is not intended to cover just a share of the salary of the applicant. The salary of the applicant will be determined by the SNSF in agreement with the research institution. The average gross salary will be around CHF 105'000 per annum for a work time percentage of 100% (e.g. research associate level, junior group leader, scientific collaborator, etc.). The social security contributions of the employer will be covered as well. If the Swiss National Science Foundation | 4 applicant would like to insert more accurate figures for the salary, please contact in advance the HR department or the personnel office of the research institution. Please first select the correct research institution in the container "University or research institution". Afterwards, mySNF will add the correct value in all fields labelled "Social security contributions (%)" and calculate the corresponding values for the social security contributions of the employer where required. Regarding family/child allowance ("Further social security contributions"), they are different in every canton. Therefore, for more details please contact in advance the HR department or the personnel office of the research institution. Pursuant to article 1 paragraph 4 of the Ambizione regulations, grantees must devote their entire work time (100%) to the planned research. A lower work time percentage of at least 80% is permissible (see article 6 paragraph 2 of the Ambizione regulations). 

Eligible costs: Ambizione project grant 

The following project funds are covered by an Ambizione project grant: 

• salaries of employees whose posts have been approved by the SNSF;
• material costs directly related to the approved project, in particular material of enduring value, expendable items, field expenses, travel expenses, third-party charges, cost of computing time and data as well as of providing open access to research data;
• direct costs of the use of infrastructure for conducting the research project; 
• costs and fees of scientific open access e-publications produced within the scope of the funded research;
• costs of organising conferences and workshops associated with the funded research;
• costs for national and international cooperation and networking activities carried out in connection with the funded research;
• costs for career measures; h. costs for gender equality measures.

For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.