SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships (SPF): CHF 105,000 per annum

Finance October 24, 2023

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With the Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships, the SNSF covers the recipients’ salary and social security costs. The average gross salary will be around CHF 105,000 per annum for a work-time quota of 100% (1 FTE). The SNSF and the HR office of the higher education institution where the grant holder is employed will define the precise salary for postdocs in accordance with the salary scales applied by the institution to researchers with comparable qualifications.

SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships (SPF): CHF 105,000 per annum

Switzerland is considered a non-associated third country in the 2023 calls for projects in Horizon Europe (work programme 2023-2024) and related programmes and initiatives. This year, on behalf of the Swiss Confederation, the SNSF is launching a new call under the transitional measure SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships for people of all nationalities who were aiming to apply for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF).

The scheme is open to all research disciplines and topics.

This funding scheme will offer applicants with a PhD and no more than eight years of postdoctoral experience a position at a non-commercial research institution in Switzerland for 12-24 months.

The grant includes the postdoctoral fellow’s salary with social security contributions, financial contributions to research, and conference costs.

What is the grant award of a SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship?

For guidelines on the rates for employees and for social contributions, refer to:

Annex 12: Salary ranges, guidelines for employees in SNSF-funded projects
and blankets amounts for social security contributions (PDF)

In addition to the recipients’ salary, project funds, including research costs directly linked to the implementation of the project, training and networking contributions, are also covered. Project funds must not exceed CHF 24,000 for a two-year grant. If the duration of the SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship is less than 2 years, the maximum amount will be proportionately smaller.

Participation requirements

Eligibility criteria

Important: Applicants whose applications were rejected in the SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 call may submit a revised application, involving the same host institu-tion, if they have achieved an evaluation score of at least 6.3 out of 9. The same regulation applies under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowships, where at least 70% of the maximum score is required. Applicants whose proposal was rejected under SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 can submit a revised application under SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 involving the same host institution, regardless of the evaluation score.The following criteria apply to the SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships:

Application submission

Draw up your SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships application in accordance with the guidelines and submit it using the online platform mySNF. We recommend opening your application as early as possible to familiarise yourself with the requirements. We open the application website three months before the submission deadline. Please also note the conditions and requirements in the call document.

Important: Please create your CV in the new format on the SNSF Portal in good time. For your first login, you will need a SWITCH-edu ID and an ORCID ID, which may take a few days to obtain.

mySNF user account

If you are submitting an application to the SNSF for the first time: register on mySNF and request your user account. We will then send you your login information by e-mail. Please note: you must request your user account at least one month before the submission deadline. If not, we cannot guarantee timely access to mySNF. The user account will be available to you for all applications and for lifetime management of approved projects.

mySNF platform login

Evaluation procedure

You can find general information on the evaluation procedure at this link:

Please also consult the Funding Regulations and the Organisational Regulations of the National Research Council:

Specific instructions for the SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships evaluation procedure can be found in the guidelines and the call document:

Receipt and verification at the SNSF:

Verification of formal requirements and eligibility

(Art. 4.3 Call Document)

The National Research Council of the SNSF and the evaluation bodies it appoints are responsible for the scientific evaluation and for taking the relevant funding decisions.