Australian-Swiss Joint Research Programme
As part of the Swiss government's bilateral programmes, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the SNSF are launching a call for Joint Research Projects (JRPs) in March 2026. JRPs allow researchers in Switzerland to carry out a collaborative research project with a partner in Australia. To formalise this partnership, the two funding agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 17 September 2025.
JRPs are aimed at promoting collaborative projects with clearly defined goals. They must involve at least one partner based in Switzerland and one based in Australia. Proposals should describe ambitious research and propose innovative approaches. The research is to be carried out at the participating research facilities. Reciprocal visits and short stays in Switzerland for researchers from Australia and vice versa are also possible within the scope of a JRP.
Details
2026 call
The theme of this collaboration is: artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare for populations of diverse sex, gender or sexual orientations or other underrepresented population groups.
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
AI for medical decision support for diagnosis and treatment planning, with a focus on underrepresented population groups
Addressing bias in medical training data
Enhancing trust and trustworthiness in AI-based decision support
Interpretability of AI applications in gender medicine
The following topics are excluded:
Theoretical AI approaches that do not tackle any relevant problem of gender medicine or underrepresented population groups
AI not related to any underrepresented population groups or data bias
Studies focusing on underrepresented population groups that are only relevant in Australia or Switzerland.
The SNSF will cover the costs for the Swiss part of the research, while the NHMRC will cover the costs for the Australian part of the research. The duration of the JRPs is exactly four years. The maximum funding amount on the Swiss side is 400,000 francs per project. The budget available for this call will allow up to 10 projects to be funded. Proposals must be submitted to both funding agencies.
Documents and links
Supplementary measures
News
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