Research Fund Junior Researchers

The call for applications is aimed at junior researchers at the University of Basel who wish to pursue an academic career and who have already distinguished themselves through their outstanding achievements. Applicants can apply for up to CHF 80,000 in funding.

The University is striving to increase the number of women in the upper career echelons. Outstanding female scholars are strongly encouraged to apply.

Regulations and guidelines

• Policies (translation of original document)
• Application Guidelines (translation of original document)
• Information sheet for application
• What can be billed as consumables?
• Application procedure Research Fund

Submission deadlines:

1 February 2024 and 2 September 2024, until 12:00 o'clock (noon!) 
earliest possible start for funding: 1 June and 1 December, respecitvely.

Please  also note the different steps of the application process and deadlines mentioned in the information sheet for application (e.g. Grants Tool entry by 15.1. resp. 15.8.).


As part of the call for applications for grants from the University of Basel research fund, contributions from the Novartis University of Basel Excellence Scholarship for Life Sciences, the Max Geldner Foundation, the Med. Division of the Lichtenstein Foundation, the L. and Th. La Roche Foundation as well as the Fund for Promoting Young Academic Talent (FFaN) awarded in addition to the funding of the University of Basel.

Who can apply for a grant?

• Outstanding PhD students from the following faculties: Theology, Law, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business and Economics as well as PhD students in educational sciences and in social or organizational for completing their dissertations (own salary, max. 12 months, usually for the 4th year, in justified exceptions up to the end of the 5th year). PhD students in structural research associate positions (strukturelle Assistenzstellen) cannot apply to the Research Fund.
• Postdocs employed by the University of Basel, by one of the university clinics Basel or an Associated Institute, who need (start-up/completion)funding for an independent, outstanding research project or who wish to establish their own research group at the University of Basel. New as of 2024: At the time of the deadline, the defense of the doctorate must not have taken place more than 8 years ago, so that an application for further SNSF career funding schemes is still possible during the funding period. For this, the calculation of the net academic age according to the SNSF is relevant.
• Assistant and senior physicians employed by the University Hospital Basel/University Children's Hospital Basel (or one of the university clinics Basel) who wish to carry out an independent clinical or biomedical research project in accordance with the conditions in the application guidelines and thereby wish to achieve academic independence. New as of 2024: At the time of the deadline, the state examination (or equivalent) must not have been completed more than 14 years ago (in the case of maternity leave or similar, the rules of the SNSF apply).

Which categories can be funded?

• Personal salary
• Funds for leave of absence (i.e. from clinical duties)
• Salary for a staff member (i.e. study nurse, lab/technical assistant, etc.)
• for Postdocs: Consumables (costs for medical or lab materials, proofreading costs) to a limited extent

What are the evaluation criteria?

• Person: Scientific training & previous achievements, career plan and, particularly in the case of postdocs, the potential for an academic career
• Project: research plan, research question, independence, method, innovation potential
• Environment: Integration and research environment; content of reference letters

PhD students: For the final funding of dissertations, the feasibility of completing the dissertation is highly relevant.
Postdocs: During the assessment, particular importance is attached to the independence of the research and the plausibility of the career plan.

How to proceed

Please consult the application guidelines (eligibility, possibilities for funding) and read carefully the information sheet for application. The whole precedure is documented there.

The most important steps are the following:

• Grants Tool entry with your Unibas login data: timely request of a virtual infrastructure confirmation (until 15.01. or 15.08.) by your department as follows:
  • Login to Grants Tool incl. budget calculator (basic project data, budget)
    • upon login create a new project and select "University of Basel Forschungsfonds" -> "Forschungsfonds (Excellent Junior Researcher)" and complete the entry and the budget; submission deadline = submission deadline of Research Fund, planned project start date = start date of the funding / planned project end date = end date of the funding. Please see website above under "deadlines" for eaerliest possible funding start dates.
  • All further communication will be conducted via the e-mail address that you enter for the login into the Grants Tool.
  • Upon receipt of the department's approval by e-mail you will be provided with a personalised link to the application platform where you have to complete a form and upload all the necessary application documents.
  • If no access/login data exists to the Grants Tool please contact us with the required details (see information sheet for application).
  • No futher steps required in the Grants Tool!
• Upon receipt of the link to the application platform: You will receive the link automatically by e-mail after the departmental confirmation (see first step). Please complete the required data in the application form for «Research Fund Junior Researchers» and upload all the necessary documents. It is possible to temporarily save the entered data and access the current status via the same link.

• Submission of your application: via the submission button you are submitting your application inc. all required documents electronically. If successful, a PDF will generate with the data in the application form that you can save for your own purposes. Please see the information sheet for application for all the important information and documents.