ETH Pioneer Fellowship in Switzerland 2025

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Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich

Main building, Rämistrasse 101, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland

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Introduction

The ETH Pioneer Fellowship in Switzerland is open to all nationals. The duration of the program is 10-18 months. The Pioneer ETH Fellowship Program is open for Master’s, Doctoral, and Postdoctoral Students. The Fully Funded Fellowship award is available for the academic year of 2024-25.

Fellowships are awarded in a competitive process to ensure that the best applications with the highest potential and the most entrepreneurial applicants are selected. Re-application is not allowed in case of rejection.

There are two types of fellowships under the ETH Pioneer Fellowship 2024:

Pioneer Fellowship Deep-Tech Incubation Program: This program helps entrepreneurial ETH students and researchers turn their research-based ideas and technologies into products and services that can be sold. The goal is to launch a successful ETH spin-off company.
Pioneer Fellowship Social Impact Incubation Program: This program supports entrepreneurial ETH students and researchers in creating products and services from their research that have a positive social impact. The aim is to build a scalable ETH spin-off company.

Benefits

The ETH Pioneer Fellowship Program will cover all the expenses of selected candidates. Successful applicants will be awarded a lump sum of 150’000 CHF to cover the applicant’s salary costs and other costs to support the project. The appropriate salary level depends on the applicant’s level of education and other costs expected in the project. As scientific employees at ETH (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeitende), Pioneer Fellows will be employed on a grant.

Apart from salaries, the fellowship should finance most aspects of your project. It includes

General Expenses:

Equipment and project-specific consumables/materials
Measurement costs at facilities like FIRST, ScopeM, EPIC…
Software licenses for specialized software not yet covered by Research Group.
Costs of pre-clinical trials
Outsourcing of activities, such as writing websites, software, market reports, external consultants, etc.

Travel / Field Expenses and Industry Fairs:

Industry engagement or partnership events (e.g., BioEurope, Hannover Messe), Customer visits, presentations to investors…
All expenses are expressly dedicated to the project and not for private purposes.
All expense receipts will need to be submitted to the Finance Department to justify your expenses.

Tuition Fees for Certificate of Advanced Studies:

A tuition fee of CHF 9’200 can be paid by a direct grant from CAS ETH for a single candidate in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Technology Ventures (CAS ELTV) as enrollment is mandatory.
Enrollment of a second candidate is optional if a team of 2 persons applies. If they choose to apply, ieLab will contribute 50% of the tuition fee.

Eligibility

Candidates must have a master’s or doctoral degree from ETH Zurich.
A team of 1-2 entrepreneurs who want to commercialize the results of their research (master’s or doctoral thesis or postdoctoral research) at ETH.
A promising business case
A project in which the company is not yet involved.
The project and the team are fully supported by the host professor at ETH.

Others

The application shall include the following:

A brief project summary that should review the planned activities, market situation, and innovation potential. This summary should not contain confidential information.
A detailed description of the idea based on the research results of a master’s or doctoral thesis at ETH Zurich. Special emphasis is placed on innovative aspects of efficiency and customer benefits, products, or services. This includes some evidence of market relevance, a basic business model with initial details on a commercialization strategy, and technical and market analysis. patent applications and software (IP) are made available for licensing to fellowships as well as future spin-offs, etc. Milestones and more detailed Explanation of expenses. Expected results are clearly defined.
A detailed list of financial requirements
Candidate’s full CV, including a list of relevant publications and a brief outline of their career goals
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest (if any) to both candidates and the host professor.
A signed letter of support from the host professor explaining why and how s/he wishes to support the candidate and how s/he evaluates the proposed project idea. Describing infrastructure made accessible.
2-minute-long presentation video of the project and motivation. Must be submitted via Polybox in MP4 format.