Project funding: Ensuring evaluation quality and the diversity of funded research

The SNSF finances outstanding basic research with its largest funding scheme, Project funding. It is aimed at experienced researchers based at universities and other eligible institutions in Switzerland.

Increased demand and budget reductions

The funds provided by the federal government have only increased moderately in recent years, and reductions are expected in the future. At the same time, both the number of applications submitted and the amount of funding requested have risen sharply.

This has consequences: The SNSF is already forced to reject numerous projects that it should actually support based on their excellence. In addition, the evaluation process is reaching its limits. The SNSF does not have the resources to set up additional evaluation panels and cannot expect current panel members to take on ever more work without extra compensation.

Furthermore, it has become even more challenging to recruit enough international experts for the external evaluation of applications (peer review). This is because the number of research applications and scientific publications has also risen sharply worldwide.

Maximum of two simultaneous grants

In 2024, the SNSF introduced initial limits on the number of simultaneous project grants per researcher as well as upper limits on the amount of funding requested per project.

It is now discussing further measures for 2026.

It is envisaged that researchers will only be able to have a maximum of two simultaneous project grants, one of which must be a Lead Agency/Weave/ICIS project. Researchers will only be allowed to submit one application within a twelve-month period. Furthermore, applicants abroad will no longer be eligible except for Lead Agency/Weave/ICIS projects. In addition, the SNSF is considering lower maximum budgets for proposed projects.

“The situation calls for decisive action,” says Co-director Thomas Werder Schläpfer. “The SNSF is considering these measures in order to maintain the broad scope of the research it funds with limited resources. After all, it is this breadth that makes Swiss research so successful.”

Roadmap for 2026: decision and dates

The Research Council will make a final decision on the introduction of new measures for Project funding in January 2026. The SNSF will then provide information about these changes on its website and in the updated Project Funding Regulations. A webinar will be held to explain the changes and answer questions from researchers.

The call with the deadline of 1 April 2026 will open at the beginning of February 2026. Due to the extraordinary situation and in order to prepare the research community, the SNSF is already providing preliminary information about the measures under discussion.