Guidelines "How do I enter the budget?"

You may only use the SNSF grant for costs that are directly related to your project. Costs for basic equipment or normal operation of a scientific facility are not covered.

Chargeable to the grant are, for example:

• The salaries of persons employed specifically for the project. The applicants' own salaries and the salaries of project partners are not eligible for funding.
• Costs for equipment you acquire because it is central to your project. Standard IT equipment including hardware and software is not covered.
• Costs for the direct use of infrastructures. General costs for the acquisition, amortisation, maintenance and repair of these infrastructures are not chargeable to the grant. Detailed rules on the use of infrastructure can be found here: Infrastructure use
• Costs for data storage during the lifetime of your project if the data volumes are exceptionally large and exceed the capacity of the infrastructure available at the higher education institution.

Justify all expenses and set out clearly why they are necessary.

Explanations:

• «Attending various conferences» is not sufficiently specific as a justification for travel expenses.
• Costs become comprehensible if you can show how they are linked to the activities envis-aged in the research plan.
• Budgeted costs are often an estimate. Not every cab ride needs to be itemised. On the other hand, you should clearly show what the budgeted costs consist of and on what considerations they are based (e.g. experience from a comparable project). Give reasons for your assumptions.

Calculate costs based on cost-efficiency and proportionality criteria.

Examples:

• In a reasonable budget, the costs are proportionate to the goals set for the project. The costs may exceed the usual range only in exceptional cases and only if justified.
• Avoid air travel, both for sustainability and cost reasons. If flying should still be necessary, choose cheap flights and use the same trip for multiple purposes.

Travel must be directly related to the research project. In addition to travel expenses (e.g. for attend-ing conferences), you can also include costs for organising meetings and workshops.

Apply the following principles when travelling:

• Whenever possible, use public transport.
• Fly economy class. Choose the offer with the best price-performance ratio. The SNSF will only pay business class supplements in cases where this is absolutely necessary.
• You can calculate room and board costs based on the rates applicable at your insitution. The costs at mid-price hotels and restaurants constitute the maximum reference price.

The SNSF will reimburse the costs of equipment and material of lasting value up to a maximum amount of CHF 100,000. Such equipment is necessary for the research project and is purchased specifically for it. It is not part of the basic equipment of a scientific institution.

The cost of basic equipment cannot be included in the budget, namely:

• Standard IT equipment including hardware and software;
• Laboratory facilities and equipment;
• Other facilities and equipment that are standard in an institution for the relevant area of re-search.

The SNSF supports researchers in making data from their project accessible with up to CHF 10,000.

You can include costs for data preparation in the budget (e.g. cleaning up data, creating metadata and anonymising data) and the publication costs in scientifically recognised, digital data repositories. The latter must fulfil the FAIR principles (see Checklist (PDF)and Clauses 2.13 and 11.8 of the General implementation regulations for the Funding Regulations). The SNSF does not cover any costs for commercial data repositories.

The SNSF may cover other material costs that are directly related to your research project and are not part of the basic equipment or normal operation of a scientific institution. These are, for example, expenses for consumables, field expenses, direct costs for the use of infrastructures or costs for computing time and the procurement of data.

Detailed rules on the use of infrastructure can be found here: Infrastructure use

Please note that you may not add the cost of basic equipment or normal operations to the budget. This includes, but is not limited to, the cost of:

• IT equipment, literature, aids and objects that are part of the basic equipment or usual operation of a scientific institution, as well as any related translations
• Photocopies, postage, phone calls, IT accessories (hardware and infrastructure) and soft-ware (e.g. licences, support services, subscriptions)
• Rent, electricity, water, insurance, with the exception of liability insurance premiums for research involving human subjects
• Maintenance and services, service centres and repairs
• Acquisition, amortisation, maintenance and repair of used infrastructure