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Detailed information can be found in the guidelines for submitting a proposal (see section Documents).
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For applicants with a PhD: The date of the oral PhD defense is crucial. The period of eligibility extends from 3 years to 8 years after this date. The Eccellenza submission deadline must fall into this period (Article 4 paragraph 2 of the Eccellenza Regulations).
For applicants with an MD: The date specified on the state diploma is crucial. The period of eligibility extends from 3 years to 12 years after this date. The Eccellenza submission deadline must fall into this period. Please refer to Article 4 paragraph 4 of the Eccellenza Regulations for further details.
The SNSF does not apply any biological age restrictions; however, the applicant’s potential for obtaining a permanent position as a professor at a higher education institution forms part of the evaluation criteria (Article 13, paragraph 4 of the Eccellenza Regulations).
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Ambizione grantees may apply for an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship 18 months after starting their Ambizione grant at the earliest. (Article 13 of the Ambizione Regulations)
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Researchers who submit applications for SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowships must not have held, currently hold, or have been assured of, a temporary or permanent assistant professorship or professorship position, whether in Switzerland or abroad, at the time of the submission deadline or during the evaluation procedure. Positions that do not allow submission are characterized as follows: temporary or permanent member of teaching staff with independent position involving independent research and teaching duties/activities not bound by instructions, right to supervise doctoral theses. For applicants from abroad, the title of the position may differ from the titles used in Switzerland (assistant professor, professor). Please contact the SNSF administrative offices in case of doubt.
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There are no academic or biological age restrictions when applying for an SNSF Eccellenza grant. However, researchers can only apply for an SNSF Eccellenza Grant while holding a position as tenure-track assistant professor at a Swiss higher education institution. The tenure-track assistant professorship must have been started no more than 18 months before the submission deadline and no later than the start of the project (Article 5 of the Eccellenza Regulations).
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The eligibility window for an SNSF Eccellenza Grant cannot be extended. The period of eligibility for an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship may be extended at the applicant’s request. Any weeks during which an applicant’s research activity was interrupted, reduced or not increased for an acceptable reason will be considered for the extension. In the event of maternity, the relevant period is extended by 18 months per child born after attaining the doctorate, state examination (medical license) or equivalent qualification. Please find more information in paragraph 1.11 of the General implementation regulations for the Funding Regulations.
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No exceptions are possible. This condition must be met by the submission deadline for Eccellenza. For calculating this period, the date of the examination is decisive.
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In principle, SNSF Eccellenza Professional Fellowships require a level of employment of 100%. A reduction to a minimum of 80% is possible in specific cases such as family obligations (Article 6 paragraph 3 of the Eccellenza Regulations). The minimal percentage that must be devoted to research is variably defined for different situations:
- Eccellenza at a university or ETH: at least 80% research and further scientific education, 20% teaching
- Eccellenza at UAS/UTE: at least 70% research and further scientific education, 30% teaching
- Eccellenza for medical researchers doing clinical work: at least 50% research and training related to the project; up to 50% clinical activities
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You may not apply for
an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship (Article 4 paragraph 1 of the
Eccellenza Regulations). However, under certain conditions, you may be eligible
to apply for an SNSF Eccellenza Grant: you must satisfy the personal
requirements set out in Article 5 of the Eccellenza Regulations, and you may
not submit a proposal for a duration of support that overlaps your SNSF
Professorship unless it is thematically clearly distinct. Note however that in
any case you may only apply for an SNSF Eccellenza Grant once (i.e. no
resubmissions are allowed).
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You cannot request an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship if you have already applied for other SNSF career grants (e.g. Ambizione or PRIMA) for the same support period. Additionally, you may not submit an SNSF Eccellenza application (either Professorial Fellowship or Grant) if you applied for Project Funding, SPIRIT or Sinergia for the same support period.
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You can continue if its research topic is clearly different from that of the SNSF Eccellenza application (Article 11 paragraph 4 of the Eccellenza regulations).
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Applicants whose request for an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship has been rejected may submit an application once more. An SNSF Eccellenza Grant may only be requested once (no resubmission is allowed).
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It is generally not possible to extend either an SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship or an SNSF Eccellenza Grant beyond a duration of 5 years (Article 3 paragraph 5 of the Eccellenza Regulations). Exceptions to this rule are specified in paragraph 7.6 of the General Implementation regulations for the Funding Regulations.
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The interdisciplinary character of your proposal will be taken into account during the evaluation. Depending on the choice of research field, your proposal will be evaluated in one of the following three research domains: Humanities and Social Sciences, Mathematics, Natural and Engineering Sciences and Biology and Medicine. If your project is situated at the intersection between these domains, you should go to “Basic data I” on mySNF and choose the research field according to where you primarily want the proposal to be evaluated. The main referee will then be assigned from the selected research field, while the co-referees may be assigned from the further research field(s).
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All publicly funded research institutions in Switzerland are eligible, i.e. universities, university hospitals, universities of applied sciences, universities of teacher education, research centres (e.g., PSI, EMPA, EAWAG) or institutes of postgraduate education (e.g., IDIAP, IHEID). However, an Eccellenza Award must be domiciled at a Swiss higher education institution that is recognised or accredited by swissuniversities. An institute dedicated solely to research can therefore only be chosen as host in combination with a higher education institution.