No new Eccellenza Grants as of 2021
The Eccellenza scheme promotes researchers who have good chances of becoming professors. The SNSF continues to support them with SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowships. However, no more SNSF Eccellenza Grants will be awarded as of 2021.
To successfully pursue an academic career, researchers usually need to work with their own team. This is only possible if sufficient financial resources are available. With this in mind, the SNSF created the Eccellenza funding scheme in 2017. SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowships promote talented young researchers who are aiming for an assistant professorship or equivalent position. Under these fellowships, they are able to spend five years doing research.
Funding by higher education institutions
Additionally, the SNSF Eccellenza Grants support researchers who already have a tenure track assistant professorship. No further Eccellenza Grants will be awarded by the SNSF as of 2021. They have not been factored into the budget for the new ERI Dispatch 2021-2024 (Dispatch on the Promotion of Education, Research and Innovation). These professorships will in future be funded principally by the higher education institutions themselves.
Nevertheless, researchers in this category still have the option of applying for support under other SNSF funding schemes. The next submission deadline for project funding applications is 1 October 2020.
Approved grants will continue
The SNSF will pay the Eccellenza Grants approved in 2018 and 2019 for their entire five-year lifespan. This also applies to the Eccellenza Grants of the third call. The SNSF will decide which projects to fund in November 2020.
Strengthening research in Switzerland
For researchers who do not yet have an assistant professorship, the SNSF continues to offer the Eccellenza Professorial Fellowships. "The fellowships enable us to expand our support for researchers pursuing an academic career," says Marcel Kullin, head of the Careers division of the SNSF. "They make it more likely for outstanding researchers to remain in academia and strengthen Swiss research."