SNSF Project Funding

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

The SNSF's workhorse open call: researchers propose on a topic of their own choosing, in any discipline including the social sciences, and the scheme explicitly welcomes practice-related questions alongside purely theoretical ones — which matters for applied social work research. Grants run one to four years and can be held individually or as a collaborative project with up to three applicants, allowing a genuine multi-site design. Two fixed submission dates a year, so the planning rhythm is predictable. Note the 2026 rule change capping researchers at one submission per twelve months and two

Indicative award

Amount not published (per year)Up to CHF 250,000 per applicant per year, of which at most CHF 200,000 may be personnel costs; minimum grant CHF 100,000; collaborative projects with three or more applicants are capped at CHF 3 million in total. Swiss francs; numeric fields left null.

Timing

Several times a yearSeveral times a year · Apr, OctPublished deadline: 2026-10-01 — 47 days awayTwo fixed submission dates each year, 1 April and 1 October, at 17:00 Swiss time. Projects run a minimum of one and a maximum of four years. Rule changes effective from the 1 April 2026 deadline limit researchers to two simultaneous project funding grants and one submission per twelve months.

Who can apply

Postdoctoral, Early-career faculty, Mid-career & senior, Any faculty rank

Eligibility

Applicants need a doctorate obtained at least four years before submission (or equivalent standing), must work at least 50 percent FTE in research at an eligible Swiss research institution, and must be in a position to take full responsibility for the project and its staff. Special routes exist for clinical researchers, museum and archive staff, and independent researchers. Partners abroad can be involved but cannot be co-applicants except through the Weave, Lead Agency or International Co-Investigator schemes.

SSWR clusters

Topics

investigator-initiated research · practice-related research · multi-site collaboration

Apply at

https://www.snf.ch/en/WAvYcY7awAUGolST/funding/projects/project-funding

This entry

Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. The funder link has not yet been machine-checked.

Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.

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SNSF Project Funding

Also on the Social Work Practice shelf