Changes to conditions for employees funded under SNSF grants

​With these changes, the SNSF will be able to better accommodate the diverse practices at higher education institutions and ensure that all employees are treated equally. The amended regulations will apply to new applications with immediate effect. They can also be applied retrospectively to ongoing or approved grants.

The consequences for the three employee categories at the SNSF are the following:

• As until now,doctoral studentscan only be paid under SNSF grants for a maximum of four years. However, the four-year funding period no longer starts with matriculation, but rather with the actual start date of the dissertation. The existing salary scales with fixed annual increases for doctoral students are replaced by a flexible salary range.
• Forpostdocs(up to five years after doctorate), the existing rules continue to apply.
• Other employeesmust make a specific contribution to the research project. Their salary costs may not be charged to SNSF grants uninterruptedly over a long period.

The changes concern only employees whose salaries are charged to SNSF grants; they do not affect either grantees or applicants. The new rules are more flexible than the existing ones. For this reason, it is not absolutely necessary to change any existing employment relationships. The introduction of the salary range for doctoral students does not give rise to additional personnel costs. For further detailed information, please refer to the documents at the links below.

• Leaflet about categories of employees, eligibility windows and duration of employment (PDF) (PDF)
• General implementation regulations for the Funding Regulations, the basic provisions on employing staff members in SNSF grants are set out in chapter 7.
• Salary ranges, guidelines for employees funded under SNSF grants, and blanket amounts for social security contributions (PDF) (PDF)