The main participation requirements are listed below. Please consult the Doc.CH Regulations to determine your formal eligibility.
- At the time of the submission deadline, applicants must hold a master's degree corresponding to 90-120 ECTS credits with very good qualifications. In addition, in case the degree is not from a Swiss higher education institution, applicants must either be Swiss nationals or matriculated at the chosen Swiss university on the date of submission.
- Submission up to 3 years after obtaining the degree (at the time of the submission deadline).
- Two persons supervising the doctoral thesis: the first person works at the Swiss higher education institution at which the applicant will be employed (supervisor); the second person must work either at another Swiss higher education institution or abroad.
Submission of proposals
Application must be submitted via the mySNF platform. The mySNF platform will be opened for submission three months before the respective application deadline.
Evaluation procedure
The grant consists of two parts: the first part lasts for 2 years, the second part for 1 to 2 years. A two-stage evaluation procedure is applied for the first part of the grant.
- First phase: the Evaluation Commissions Doc.CH select the best applications for the second phase.
- Second phase: those persons whose applications were selected in the first assessment phase are invited to a personal interview in Berne, during which they present their research project and career plan to the responsible Evaluation Commission Doc.CH. If the application is submitted by 15 March, the interviews will take place in weeks 23 to 25. If the application is submitted by 15 September, the candidates will be interviewed either in week 49, 50 or 51.
The negative decisions from phase 1 as well as the decisions made in phase 2 are communicated to the applicants all during the same period in a written ruling. Decision letters are sent in the first half of July for applications submitted by 15 March and in the first half of February for applications submitted by 15 September.
After the first 18 months of funding, the grantees submit an application for the second part of the grant. The application must contain a report on the completed first part, justification of the requested funding period for the second part and a statement by the supervisor of the doctoral thesis.
Evaluation procedure for careers
The list contains the names of the members of the evaluation body Doc.CH Evaluation Commission Humanities and Doc.CH Evaluation Commission Social Sciences. For the SNSF, interaction between applicants and members of evaluation bodies over applications is not compatible with academic best practices.