Branco Weiss Fellowship 2027 — CHF 600,000 Postdoc Grant
Fully funded Postdoc scholarship in Switzerland for International students 2027
Apply by 15 January 2027 for up to CHF 600,000 over five years to run your own research project at ETH Zurich. Open to postdocs within five years of the PhD.
Eligibility
- PhD officially held by 15 January 2027
- PhD awarded no more than five years before 15 January 2027
- No current or previous faculty-equivalent or group-leader position
- Project departs from the mainstream of your discipline
- Three peer-reviewed publications and an invitation letter from a host
- Host confirms you are their only Branco Weiss candidate this round
A Branco Weiss Fellowship is not a scholarship in the usual sense. It is five years of protected time and a budget large enough to build a research group, given to a small number of people who have just finished a PhD and who want to work on something their own field considers unusual. The fellowship is hosted at ETH Zurich and is awarded across every discipline, from biology to law to engineering, which is why it keeps appearing on lists of the most competitive early-career awards in Europe.
The 2027 round is open now and closes on 15 January 2027 at 5 p.m. CET. If you have defended your PhD and are within five years of it, this is one of the few awards where the money follows your idea rather than a supervisor's grant.
What it covers
A Branco Weiss Fellowship is worth up to CHF 600,000 across five years, and the money is deliberately flexible: salary, equipment, consumables, travel and additional personnel can all be paid from it. There is no fixed stipend rate and no departmental overhead structure to fit into. You decide what the project needs and put that in the proposal.
The five years are split into two phases. The first two and a half years are the pioneer phase. Before the end of the second year there is a site visit and a review, and if the project is judged to be still original and productive you move into the exploitation phase for the remaining two and a half years. Fellows are actively encouraged to look for faculty positions during that second phase, and taking a professorship after the first year does not terminate the fellowship. That sequencing is unusual and it is the main reason the award suits people who want an academic career rather than a fixed postdoc contract.
Who can apply
Five rules decide most applications. You must officially hold a PhD on 15 January 2027, meaning the defence has been passed, not merely scheduled. The PhD must have been obtained no more than five years before that date. You must not hold, and must not have held, a faculty-equivalent position, including anything with an independent research programme, principal investigator duties or a tenure-track pathway. Your project must depart from the mainstream of your discipline. And you must be willing to travel to the Greater Zurich Area for the annual symposium.
A sixth rule catches people late: you can only apply if you are the only candidate your chosen mentor is supporting in that round. Confirm this with the host professor in writing before you spend weeks on a proposal.
Use these questions as a self-check before you write anything.
- Was my PhD defence completed before 15 January 2027, and is the certificate available on request? - Was the PhD awarded no earlier than January 2022, unless I have documented parental leave or illness? - Have I ever held a position with independent research responsibility, even under a different job title? - Can I explain in one page why my project would not fit a normal grant scheme in my field? - Do I have three peer-reviewed publications that show a record of achievement? - Has my prospective host confirmed that I am the only Branco Weiss candidate they are supporting this round?
Eligibility is assessed on academic independence rather than job title, so a research group leader role can disqualify you even if it was never called a professorship. Be honest in that self-assessment; the reviewers read the career narrative closely.
Deadline and timeline
The final deadline is 15 January 2027, 5 p.m. CET. Notification and interview invitations go out in May 2027, with some candidates invited to a preliminary screening interview in early May. Panel interviews run 7 to 9 June 2027 by Zoom with a panel in Zurich. Fellows then start their projects at some point between 1 October and 31 December 2027. Because the review is staged, a proposal submitted in the final week is read in exactly the same way as one submitted in November, but the portal slows down near the deadline and the fellowship office advises submitting one to two days early.
How to apply
Applications go through the ETH Zurich eResearch grant portal. Everything is uploaded as PDF, with a 5 MB limit per file and 15 MB in total. You will need a motivation letter of no more than one page that explains why your research differs from the mainstream, a research project of no more than five pages including timelines, milestones and references, a CV of no more than four pages, an invitation letter from your prospective host explaining why you are invited and why the project is supported, copies of your three best publications, the names of five possible reviewers entered directly in the form, and a scan of your PhD certificate or confirmation that the examination was passed. A reference letter is not required at application stage and budgets are not submitted with the proposal.
If you are relying on parental leave or illness to extend the five-year window, email official confirmation to the fellowship office before you submit. The maximum accepted extension is one year in total and only full-time leave counts.
Tips to win
The proposal is judged on the idea, not on how much the field already wants it. Write the first page as though the reader is a scientist from a different discipline, then make the case for why your own field will be changed by the result. The requirement to discuss social, cultural or economic implications beyond your subject is scored, and it is the section most applicants write last and worst. Treat it as a genuine argument rather than a paragraph of impact language.
Speak to your host early. The invitation letter is not a formality; it has to state why the host group wants you and why the project is supported, which means the host needs time to read a draft. Ask about the one-candidate rule at the same time.
Common mistakes
The most frequent failure is a proposal that reads like a grant application to a national funder: safe, incremental, and clearly fundable elsewhere. The second is a career narrative that hides a group-leader role and is then found in the publication record. The third is submitting a PhD certificate that shows the defence date is after 15 January 2027. The fourth is leaving the reviewer suggestions empty or filling them with collaborators.
Read the official eligibility and funding rules before you start drafting.
https://brancoweissfellowship.org/who-should-apply/eligibility-duration-and-funding/
If you are comparing this with a salaried doctoral or postdoctoral route, our guides to other fully funded research awards are useful context.
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=45
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=88
https://www.oeacnetwork.com/index.php?page=post&id=46
Stuck on any part of this application? An OEAC advisor can check your eligibility, review your documents and help you plan the timeline before the deadline — write to info@oeacnetwork.af and quote the name of this scholarship.
Last updated: 10 November 2026
Always confirm the deadline and eligibility on the official page before you apply. Scholarship dates change between rounds, and this listing is a summary — the provider's own page is the authoritative source. OEAC Network lists scholarships for free and is not an agent for any university or funding body.
