Objective

The Foundation promotes Swiss research with the goal of enhancing its international standing by supporting scientific investigations of promising young talents in the fields of biology, chemistry, and medicine.

Types of funding

The Foundation provides funding for researchers and clinicians based abroad to visit Swiss research institutions to collaborate on scientific projects or to develop new techniques or clinical treatments.
Recipients are distinguished researchers holding an active position in a laboratory or hospital. The duration of the fellowship is limited to a few weeks or months, and shall not exceed one year.

The Foundation offers start-up and bridging assistance to researchers or research groups at Swiss universities, equivalent research institutions or hospitals through fellowships to doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows.

The Foundation supports research collaborations on interdisciplinary life science projects for two or more researchers working in different disciplines at Swiss research institutions or hospitals. Funding consists primarily of fellowships to young doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows. In exceptional cases, the Foundation can also fund the procurement of equipment indispensable for the planned study as well as consumables not covered by other sources. Each member of the interdisciplinary collaboration is expected to make a specific and fundamental contribution to the project.

The Foundation awards fellowships to young doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows, provided this work is conducted either at Swiss research institutions or hospitals, or by Swiss nationals working at research institutions abroad.

The Foundation funds study visits to foreign institutions by researchers working in Switzerland to acquire new methods or specific techniques that are necessary for their work and unattainable elsewhere. As a rule, the duration of such visits is limited to a maximum of four weeks.

Applications

Requests are to be submitted using the official application forms which are available from the Secretariat of the Foundation or on the Web (see Applications). Applications must be filled out in full and submitted to the Secretariat in triplicate. Incomplete applications cannot be considered.

Applicants are not allowed to submit concurrently more than one grant request to the RRF.

No applicant is entitled to have two projects funded at the same time, i.e., support for a new application can start only after completion of the previous funding period.

Deadlines for applications are January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15.

The Board of Foundation assesses the applications based on peer review, and funding decisions are usually communicated within two months after the submission deadline.

Application procedure

Applications must be written in English and must follow the format indicated below:

• a cover letter by the applicant, summarizing the essential aspects of the application

• the title of the project

• the academic title, position and institution of the applicant or, in the case of 2.3, of all applicants

• a summary of the project, to be typed into the space provided on the application form; the summary should not contain illustrations or chemical formulae;

• a succinct description of the project, including rationale, study protocol and outline of the anticipated results and their significance (max. 5 pages). In the case of 2.1, the application is to be submitted by the head of the host institution and must describe the activities and contributions of the guest in the framework of the project. For 2.3, the application must detail the contributions to be made by each individual member of the research collaboration. In the case of 2.4, the application must also be signed by the head of the host institute, and for 2.5, the consent by the head of the chosen institute must be attached

• the curricula vitae of both the applicant (or of all applicants in the case of 2.3) and the recipient; the CVs should contain lists of the most important publications; the CV of the recipient must be complemented by copies of all academic degrees including grades or qualifications where available

• recommendation letter(s) for the recipient from current or previous research supervisors, including an assessment of the recipient by the applicant, if this is not already contained in the cover letter

• the date of the anticipated start of the project

• the type and duration of the requested fellowship. Research fellowships are granted by the Foundation according to internal rules, the fellowships being comparable to those of other Swiss funding agencies

• as the Foundation cannot in general fund equipment, consumables or other material, requests for such items have to be justified, and it must be explained why they cannot be provided by the applicant or host laboratory or from other funding sources

• any funding applied for, about to be applied for or approved from other sources, has to be declared

"Applicant" denotes the research director supervising the proposed research project. "Recipient" denotes the research fellow, graduate student or postdoctoral fellow for whom a fellowship from the Foundation is being sought. The cover letter should state that the recipient will be working in the research environment and under the supervision of the applicant.

Duration of funding

Unless stated otherwise, funding is limited to

• one year (cumulative) for postdoctoral fellowships or bridging grants (2.4);

• two years (cumulative) for PhD fellowships, typically granted as two consecutive fellowships for which independent applications are required.

Final reports

Immediately after conclusion of the research activity supported by the Foundation, beneficiaries are required to send a final report of maximally three pages (as electronic document, in English) as well as copies of all relevant publications that resulted from the research to the Secretariat of the Foundation.

Support granted by the Foundation, either in part or as a whole, cannot be transferred to any other research supervisor, recipient, or research project; any such intended change has to be brought to the attention of the Foundation ahead of time, and requires written approval by the Foundation.

The Foundation is entitled to reclaim any of its payments that are being or have been used for other than the intended purpose or that are in violation of the agreed conditions or stipulations.

The right to publish is in no way restricted by the Foundation. Support by the Foundation must, however, be acknowledged in every relevant publication. Publications cannot substitute for the final report.

If a research project leads to inventions, it is up to the applicant and the recipient to clarify the rights of ownership among themselves or third parties, and to inform the Foundation accordingly. The Foundation claims no share in such inventions, but must be placed on an equal footing with third parties in their exploitation.

For an application to obtain a first-priority rating, the applicant and recipient must be highly qualified and the project must be of high scientific quality, novelty and actuality.

The RRF is hesitant to provide postdoctoral fellowships to Swiss researchers for the first year abroad. Such fellowships ought to be requested from the Swiss National Science Foundation. However, the RRF may be approached at a later stage for a possible extension of postdoctoral stays.

Similarly, the RRF expects foreign researchers to solicit a fellowship from their home country to cover their first year stay in Switzerland, after which the RRF may provide support for a reasonable extension. Exceptions to this rule are considered when the applicant in Switzerland is not yet in a fully established position (statute 2.2).

The RRF encourages both applicants and recipients to aim for a defined PhD study program comprising a three-year term. Accordingly, the RRF is hesitant to extend doctoral fellowships beyond the third year and considers doing so only under exceptional and justified circumstances.

Likewise, postdoctoral studies beyond a fourth year after obtaining the PhD are generally not supported. Exceptions are taken into consideration when a recipient has a clearly delineated professional future and a RRF fellowship would help to bridge a critical gap of support or provide an opportunity to acquire essential complementary expertise.

The RRF does not encourage PhD graduates to remain in the same group or institute for their postdoctoral training, but expects them to move to new research groups to broaden their scientific and professional experience.

RRF fellowships are not intended as a supplement for inadequate funding from other institutions.

While the RRF supports excellent projects in broadly defined areas of biology, chemistry, and medicine, it gives preference to work that is judged by experts to be innovative, cutting-edge, or driven by interesting novel hypotheses. By contrast, projects comprising mainly data collection, correlation, taxonomy, observational activities or untargeted search expeditions generally are given lower priority.