Agora: Call for proposals

Agora supports projects that prioritise the involvement of a wider public in scientific research. The scheme aims to disseminate knowledge about science and foster dialogue between researchers and society.

Grants of up to CHF 200,000 are awarded both for small communication formats and for larger-scale initiatives with greater impact. A wide range of activities are supported, for example: discussions and debates, hands-on workshops, participatory science, multimedia projects, serious games, theatre and performances, interactive exhibitions or educational projects.

In this call, particular attention will be paid to the dialogue-with-society component, the applicant teams' communication skills and the diversity of communication formats and target audiences.

Two major changes have been made to the rules for the Agora programme:

  • Diversity and equal opportunities: the contribution to promoting diversity and equal opportunities must be explicitly described, as this is now an evaluation criterion.
  • Collaboration between researchers and communication experts: Agora projects must now be submitted jointly by a researcher and a communications expert. These experts will be assessed in a similar way to researchers, on the basis of a narrative CV which can also be generated on the SNSF Portal.

The submission deadline for pre-proposals is 20 November 2023. Funding decisions are expected to be announced in May 2024.

Agora Rolling Call

In addition to regular Agora projects, researchers can submit projects for budgets of up to 50,000 francs as part of a “rolling call" process without any specific deadline.