Ambizione: SNSF supports research independence of 71 young scientists
The SNSF is awarding 71 Ambizione grants to young researchers this year. The recently announced changes to the funding scheme will be implemented for the next call.
By mid-February 2016, 402 young researchers had submitted Ambizione applications. After a two-phase evaluation process, the SNSF awarded 71 new grants. The targeted 35 per cent share of funded female researchers was clearly exceeded this year with 33 grants (or 46.5 per cent) going to women.
Important changes as of the next call
Ambizione enables young researchers in all disciplines to start doing independent research. As part of its innovations in various funding schemes, the SNSF has decided to extend the Ambizione funding period from currently three years to four years in the future. Another innovation concerns researchers working as non-professorial research staff at higher education institutions: they will now be entitled to apply for project funding under an Ambizione grant. Changes are also planned to the personal requirements researchers have to meet on the proposal submission date: the upper age-limit has been reduced by one year. Hence, only applicants who obtained their doctorate no later than four years prior to the submission deadline specified by the SNSF will be eligible. These changes will bring Ambizione into line with the innovations introduced in project funding.
The new Ambizione Regulations and guidelines will be available on the Ambizione website from mid-September. The next call for Ambizione is scheduled for mid-October 2016, with the next submission deadline being 13 January 2017. Due to the planned changes to the evaluation schedule, a second call will be launched in 2017; the submission deadline of this call is expected to be in November.