Science and Technology for Humanitarian Action Challenges (HAC)

Call #6 is open from 15 December 2025
to 5 March 2026 (17:00 CET)

Call 6 is now open!

Deadline: Thursday 5 March 2026 (17:00 CET).

The challenges faced by the humanitarian sector are immense. Raising tensions between global powers and vanishing respect for International Humanitarian Law result in levels of humanitarian needs never reached since WWI (more than 123 million people forcibly displaced in 2024 according to UNHCR). Extreme climate events, such as floods, storms and droughts, are on the rise, thereby increasing the vulnerability of people already suffering from conflict. Built on geostrategic equilibriums that are profoundly shifting, the whole humanitarian system struggles to maintain its funding, as well as its legitimacy, resulting in shrinking operational capacities. Therefore, EPFL and ETH Zurich are joining forces with the ICRC through the Engineering for Humanitarian Action initiative to explore innovative solutions to such crises.

The goal of the Science and Technology for Humanitarian Action Challenges is to support project-based research between EPFL researchers, ETH Zurich researchers, the ICRC and other humanitarian organisations to develop effective solutions for a greater impact of humanitarian action.

The EssentialTech Centre is the managing office for this call. The EssentialTech Centre is part of the Vice Presidency for Academic Affairs. Its mandate is to harness science and technology to drive sustainable development, support humanitarian action, and foster peace. The Humanitarian Tech Division is one of the three pillars of the EssentialTech Centre, and it specifically seeks to promote science and technology solutions that can support humanitarian action.

The list of awarded projects from the previous calls for proposals is available here.

Scope

A Humanitarian Action Challenge must be a clearly defined research question designed to increase the impact of humanitarian action or to enable humanitarian actors to address new and emerging challenges. The projects must be intended to develop, test, evaluate, or implement an innovative product, service, or policy, which involves a technology (as part of the research or the solution).

Main eligibility criteria

The team must consist of at least one main applicant from EPFL, who holds a PhD or is a professor, and at least one partner from an eligible humanitarian organization.
In addition, the team is encouraged to have one partner from ETH Zurich, partners from a low- or lower-middle-income country or other humanitarian partners. Institutions from the rest of the ETH Domain (PSI, WSL, Empa, and Eawag) are welcome to join as co-applicants, and other institutions as partners.
If the main applicant is not a professor or a financially independent senior scientist (MER) or financially independent adjunct professor (professeur titulaire), the application must include a letter of commitment from the host professor or the head of unit.

Available budget

Funding is available for 6-month to 24-month projects. The granted amounts will be between CHF 50’000 and CHF 300’000.
Funding covers the project costs of the EPFL main applicant and of potential co-applicants from the ETH domain (excluding ETH Zurich, for which funding must be requested through the ETH Zurich call for proposals). It also covers partner project costs up to CHF 80’000.
Applicants (including potential co-applicants) must provide 25% of the requested amount as matching funds.

Call deadline

Proposal submissions are possible once per year. The application deadline for the sixth call for proposals is Thursday 5 March 2026 (17:00 CET).

Application toolkit

Please read carefully all documents available in the application toolkit to prepare your application.
EPFL’s and ETH Zurich’s joint information session will take place on Tuesday 20 January 2026 at 11:00 am. To register, click here.
If you still have questions, have a look at the FAQs of the call here.

Submission platform

Access the submission platform here.

ICRC priority areas

Researchers submitting an application with the ICRC are strongly encouraged to review the ICRC priority areas. Some of the main issues, priorities and requirements for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for 2020-2022 can be found in this document.

The Engineering for Humanitarian Action (EHA) partnership between EPFL, ETH Zurich and ICRC is supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Rolex and the Foundation for the ICRC.