Collaborative grants

Explore the most popular and prestigious funding opportunities for collaborative projects by researchers at EPFL.

For an extensive list, take a look at our Compendium for Collaborations.

Important: to download the documents, please login with your EPFL email address.

Not sure where to start? Contact the Research Office for personalized advice!

Collaborations in Switzerland

BRIDGE Discovery supports experienced researchers to transform their innovative research results into products or services.

The CROSS program calls upon researchers at EPFL and the University of Lausanne to submit proposals for joint projects that bring the natural sciences and engineering together with the social sciences and humanities. Through this annual call, CROSS provides competitive grants to support new seed research endeavors that have the potential to grow into full-scale interdisciplinary research projects. Up to six grants of a maximum of CHF 60,000 per project are distributed.

The Flagship Initiative aims to foster systemic innovation that helps to overcome major challenges for the economy and society and to promote transdisciplinary project collaboration. 

Each Flagship call has a thematic topic.

Fondation Leenaards supports people and institutions in the fields of culture, aging and biomedical science in the Lake Geneva region. The annual Leenaards Prize for Translational Medical Research is awarded to collaborative projects, which investigate a clinical problem, linking it to a component of advanced basic research.

The National Research Programmes (NRP) support coordinated research projects that contribute to the solution of urgent problems of national importance.

Individual or collaborative, disciplinary or interdisciplinary – realise your ideas with the SNSF. SNSF can finance your research project for one to four years.

International collaborations

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding programme that encourages networking of scientific and technological research activities throughout Europe and beyond. COST does not fund research but supports networking via different tools.

Eureka is a public network for international cooperation in R&D and innovation, present in over 45 countries. Several calls are open at present to Switzerland-based researchers:

Eureka webpage

For a group of two to maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. One will be designated as the corresponding PI (cPI).

Horizon Europe is the EU funding programme for research and innovation running from 2021 to 2027 with a €100 billion budget. 

Swiss entities are eligible to participate in most Horizon Europe collaborative calls. For more information please check the SERI Factsheet and the Q&A documents.

 

Implement doctoral programs for training in research and transferable skills by partnerships of institutions from the academic and the non-academic sector.

 
The International Co-Investigator Scheme provides funding for cross-border projects which include a subproject abroad.
 
The SNSF or partner agency evaluates and finances both the project and subproject.
 
The agreement with Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands covers all disciplines, while the agreement with the UK is limited to the humanities and social sciences.
 
If the research team would like to run a project with a country that is not listed above, projects might still be eligible for funding.

The Lead Agency process allows researchers in Switzerland and a partner country to submit a joint research proposal to one of the two national funding organisations (the Lead Agency generally changes each year).
 
Partnering countries are France, Israel, USA, South Africa, State of Sao Paolo, Province of South Tyrol.
Individual or collaborative, disciplinary or interdisciplinary – realise your ideas with the SNSF. SNSF can finance your research project for one to four years.

 
SPIRIT: an SNSF programme for international scientific collaboration with countries receiving development assistance.
 
Consortia with two to four countries in any discipline; grants contribute to the education of researchers in all participating countries.

In the Weave funding scheme, researchers from two to three European countries submit a joint proposal to one of the funding organisations involved. Weave simplifies the submission of joint applications by centralising evaluation at a single agency.
The national funding agencies involved finance the sub-projects conducted in their country.
 
Projects must contribute to promoting gender awareness and equal opportunities. This can be reflected at the level of the research content and at the level of the project team.

 

 

Contact

EPFL Research Office

Av. Auguste-Piccard 1

CH – 1015 Lausanne

[email protected]

Access map