New NCCR call for social sciences and humanities – 6+ (SSH) call
In January, the federal government launched six National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs) and set aside funds for at least one further NCCR in the SSH. The call for the additional selection procedure is now open.
With the NCCRs, the SNSF funds long-term research projects on topics of strategic importance for Switzerland. The participating researchers work in interdisciplinary and cross-university networks. Through collaboration over a long period of time and various measures, such as new training programmes, the NCCRs contribute to strengthening the funded research area and to the long-term establishment of research priorities in the Swiss higher education landscape.
The additional NCCR call is aimed at researchers from the social sciences and humanities and therefore seeks NCCRs with a clear focus on issues in these fields – in accordance with the SNSF’s classification of scientific disciplines. In the case of interdisciplinary proposals that incorporate other disciplines, the scholarly contribution must lie within the SSH, and the majority of the researchers involved must be active in SSH fields. Both applicants who have already submitted proposals to the 6th NCCR call and new applicants are eligible.
Specificities of this call
The same general conditions apply to this call as to those of the 6th NCCR call of November 2023. Proposals for smaller NCCRs – in terms of the size of the consortia and/or the proposed budget – as well as proposals with a shorter duration are explicitly welcome, as was already the case in the 6th NCCR call. Applicants for an NCCR are encouraged to involve research groups from different types of higher education institutions.
The following points have been specified for the 6+ (SSH) call: Proposed NCCRs must be based at a minimum of two home institutions. Furthermore, the total financial contributions from all home institutions should be in line with the requested federal funding.
Division of tasks between the SNSF and the federal government
The NCCR selection procedure consists of several stages and is based on legally defined objectives and criteria. In a first step, the SNSF evaluates the submitted outline proposals and subsequent full proposals according to scientific, structural and organisational criteria. Based on this evaluation, the SNSF will recommend a shortlist of excellent NCCR proposals to the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) for funding in autumn 2027.
SERI is responsible for the second step in the selection procedure: the research and higher education policy assessment and prioritisation of the proposals recommended by the SNSF. It prepares the decision of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER). The latter is expected to make the final funding decision at the end of 2027. The research is planned to start by 1 April 2028.
To clarify details about this call, the SNSF will offer an online information event for researchers and representatives of the universities and other research institutions.