SNSF Starting Grants (SNSF StG) play a key role in the career of early-stage researchers. With a success rate of just 10% (SNSF StG2025), scientific excellence and groundbreaking ideas must be translated into a compelling and convincing proposal.

SNSF StG enables early-career researchers to lead their own research project and team at a Swiss research institution. Applicants must demonstrate clear evidence of scientific independence, such as publications as main authors and/or independent from their PhD supervisor.

• 2-8 yrs after PhD + min. 2 yrs of research work, or 5-12 yrs after MD + min. 2 yrs of research work + min. 3 yrs of clinical work,
• CH nationality or PhD from CH institution or min. 2 yrs of research work at a CH institution,
• Excluded if already significant third-party funding and/or team.

External and internal candidates must send eligibility form, CV + publication list, motivation letter & letter/s of support from USI professor/s to Servizio Ricerca (servizio.ricerca@usi.ch) by 4 September 2026 to obtain the institutional support. The internal procedure lasts approx. 2 months.

This grant covers the PI’s salary and provides an additional CHF 1 million for a 5-years project. Funds can be used to cover personnel (e.g. PhD, postdocs, research assistants) and research costs (e.g. travel, conferences, Open Research Data and equipment).

The evaluation process consists of 2 phases. First, proposals are ranked by SNSF panel members based on their ground-breaking nature and scientific approach. The top-ranked proposals advance to the second phase, where they are also assessed by international peer reviewers.

Browse through past-approved projects, filtering by discipline and year. Abstracts are also available.