Statutes and legal framework

The Statutes of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) govern the policy applicable to the organisation. In particular, they define the main bodies of the SNSF and their areas of competence.

The SNSF is currently reforming its structure and organisation in order to take better account of developments in research and research funding. In a first step, new Statutes came into force on 1 January 2024. They will be accompanied by new organisational regulations (currently in preparation).

The regulations and the implementation regulations for the Statutes comprehensively regulate the organisation, tasks and funding schemes of the SNSF.

The regulations concerning specific funding schemes can be found on the page of the relevant funding scheme.

At the level of federal legislation, the Research and Innovation Promotion Act (RIPA), in particular, provides the legal basis for the activities of the SNSF.