New SNSF Leadership Programme for early-career researchers

© nd3000 / iStock

The SNSF Leadership Programme is open to SNSF Starting Grant, Eccellenza and PRIMA grantees. It aims to strengthen their understanding of key leadership concepts and empower them to successfully lead diverse teams.

Starting in February 2025, the SNSF is offering a diverse set of courses and workshops on leadership to SNSF Starting Grant, Eccellenza and PRIMA grantees.

Early-career researchers need to establish a successful research agenda to progress in their academic careers. Science being a collective endeavour, it is essential to learn how to lead diverse teams to advance scientific knowledge. The SNSF Leadership Programme offers opportunities to better understand what makes a good leader and which best practices help achieve long-term goals.

Value of leadership skills

The SNSF’s ongoing reflections on academic careers highlight the importance of building fair and respectful work environments as defined in the SNSF Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Vision and Mission. Katrin Milzow, head of Research Development, says: “Scientific excellence requires good working conditions and well-trained leaders who are able to make the most of the diverse talents in their team.”

Similar to other work environments, the academic context is undergoing cultural changes and facing new challenges related to a more diverse workforce and growing awareness of health, wellbeing and precarious work conditions. In addition, the pressure for science to deliver knowledge and solutions for the numerous challenges that we face is growing.

This calls for leaders who are able to convey a strong sense of belonging to researchers coming from different backgrounds, as well as to empower them to contribute to far-reaching endeavours that will shape knowledge and our collective ability to face complex situations in the future.

Who can participate?

The SNSF Leadership Programme is an expansion of the PRIMA Leadership Programme that was previously offered exclusively to women. The evaluations of the programme show that engagement with the proposed workshops had a positive impact on the participants’ career and personal development.

The SNSF has now opened the programme to all SNSF Starting Grant, Eccellenza and PRIMA grantees. The ten to fifteen annual events cover a broad range of topics. They aim to foster the researchers’ ability to lead change, understand group dynamics and establish strong communication skills.

The programme features renowned speakers and researchers working on leadership, organizational behavior, sociology of work and other related fields. The detailed list of events is available on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Research Funding website.