Grants Office Newsletter June 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Last year, the University of Basel achieved a record level of third-party funding despite the challenges posed by increasingly competitive calls at the SNSF and reduced access to Horizon Europe. External funding is crucial not only for individual research groups to perform excellent science but also for enhancing the global reputation of our university as a leading research institution.

This success is thanks to all of you — your drive to push the boundaries of science and your dedication to applying for a record number of grants. As the Grant Office reports below, there are numerous upcoming opportunities, from Bridge proof-of-concept grants for early-career researchers to Advanced Grants for established professors. As you all know, taking the plunge and deciding to apply is the first step towards success.

My time as Vice President for Research is coming to an end, and I look forward to serving the research community in my new role as President of the SNSF Research Council starting January 1. Over the past six years, I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you in person at commission, faculty, and department meetings, as well as at university-organized events. I will miss our conversations about current research politics, discussing career steps with junior researchers, and, last but not least, hearing about your latest research projects. As Vice President for Research, I have learned from you about a wide range of research topics and cultures across all faculties and departments — it has been a great privilege.

I wish my successor, Prof. Primo Schär, all the best in his role as Vice President for Research.

Kind regards,

Torsten Schwede

The ERC Advanced Grants (AdG) provide attractive and long-term funding to support established leading principal investigators who want to pursue ground-breaking, ambitious projects. The ERC AdG Call 2024 with deadline on 29 August 2024 is open to applicants with a Swiss host institute and proposals can be initiated here. If you plan to apply, please contact us for further information and support. For example, about the free proposal review service, offered by our colleagues from Euresearch. A host institution support letter is required for the application and is provided by the Grants Office.

While still being a third country with reduced eligibility to Horizon Europe, researchers in Switzerland can participate in various MSCA funding schemes. Most notably, Swiss-based researchers can participate in MSCA Doctoral Networks (deadline 27 November) as associated partners. The Swiss project partner will be funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. For more information, watch the Euresearch Information event. Swiss institutions are also eligible as host for the outgoing phase of MSCA Global Fellows (deadline 11 September). Watch the Euresearch Information here.

Cristina Loi, from Digital Humanities Lab, has successfully acquired a BRIDGE – Proof of Concept grant.

She tells us more about her project “Turning the Page on Climate Anxiety: Empowering Youth for Sustainable Change, Testing the Effects of a Shared Reading Program for Young Adults in Switzerland”.

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On 10 June 2024, swissuniversities signed a comprehensive Open Access agreement with Elsevier. This guarantees members of all Swiss universities full reading access to Elsevier's entire journal portfolio and allows you, as a researcher at the University of Basel, to publish in over 2,500 Elsevier Open Access journals, also now including Cell Press and The Lancet journal series, at no additional cost.

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At the beginning of 2024 the University of Basel granted all employees, including staff employed via SNSF funded projects, a 2% salary increase to cover the costs of inflation. In order to allow project leaders to report these costs in running projects and budget them in future grant proposals, the SNSF recently adjusted the upper salary bands for project staff and thus brought them in line with cost-of-living increases granted by the universities.  

More information about the decision can be found in the Intranet.

Horizonte - jointly published by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences – focuses in its latest edition on University Spin-Offs. Other articles include contributions from former rector Antonio Loprieno in "How to find the right professor", Markus Affolter from the Biozentrum on understanding morphogens and Heinz Läubli and Alfred Zippelius on collaborating with study patients at the University Hospital.

Horizonte is published four times a year both online as well as in print.

The Grants Office would like to congratulate:

• The PIs of 29 new SNSF Projects
• Glenn Bantug, Ben Engel, Gabriele Röger and Thomas Ward for their new WEAVE/Lead Agency projects
• Anna Petrig as coordinator of an interdisciplinary COST Action brings together partners from all over the world.
• The PIs of 5 Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships
• Richard Kühl and Robin Teufel for their Interreg projects
• Peter Rüthemann, Jonathan Wagner, Carlo Bertozzi and Annegret Mündermann for their Innosuisse project
• Christine Alewell and Pasquale Borrelli for their Horizon Europe project
• Petya Apostolova for a European Hematology Association grant
• Antje Prasse for her grant from the Ann Theodore Foundation
• Yvonne Willi for her grant from the Aptenia Foundation
• Kristin Dahl for her HFSP Fellowship

Check out Research Professional for more national and international Calls.