International Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, Switzerland

Eligibility criteria

Applicants must fulfill the following eligibility criteria

• Citizens of any nationality may apply.
• Applicants must have a PhD degree from a recognized university, plan to obtain a PhD degree by the time of employment, or have at least four (4) years of full-time equivalent research experience.
• Applicants must fulfill the transnational mobility rules:
  Incoming applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Switzerland for more than 12 months in the three (3) years immediately prior to the deadline for the submission of proposals.
  Re-integration applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Switzerland for more than 12 months in the three (3) years immediately prior to the deadline for the submission of proposals, and show at least two (2) years' of experience in research at the postdoctoral level in any other country, by the time they submit the application.
• Applicants must have arranged in advance a research plan with a host laboratory at the EPFL.
  
  There are no restrictions concerning the age, gender or nationality of the candidates. Candidates with career breaks or variations in the chronological sequence of their career steps are welcome to apply.
  
  Exceptions to the above rules are possible for women, e.g. in case of maternity leave, as EPFL has adopted a policy of equal opportunity.

Preparing an application

The on-line submission platform will open on 1 July 2016. The deadline for the submission of applications is 1 October 2016 (17:00 hr CET).

Applications should be made jointly with a Principal Investigator (PI), an EPFL Professor who is responsible for the research field. Applicants should arrange in advance a research plan with their Principal Investigator.

As soon as you have negotiated with a Principal Investigator at the EPFL the possibility of a postdoctoral stay, you should log-in to the EPFL Fellows online application platform. For authentication, you can use your EPFL computer account (username and GASPAR password), or create a temporary account. This authentication allows you to go back to your own form to complete your application or to check the status of your candidacy. You will need to enter all the necessary information in the electronic application form and you can upload the required documents.

For the description of the research project and the CV, the templates should be used that can be downloaded from the EPFL Fellows web-site. You will also find the ‘Ethical Issues’ form on this site which needs to be completed.

As part of your application, two reference letters must be provided. The applicant provides the contact details of two or three referees (two references are required, the third reference is optional). These referees will be contacted automatically after the application has been validated in the on-line submission system by the applicant. The referees will then be asked by EPFL to provide a recommendation letter. The referees will submit their letters electronically via the on-line submission platform. The applicants will be able to see if the referees have submitted their recommendation letters.

Applications cannot be updated after the submission.