The Branco Weiss Fellowship for Society in Science

Objectives

• The Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science is a community of exceptional young scientists who share a passion for taking research beyond the mainstream. Fellows are given the means to pursue their personal vision of a particular scientific project independently – in the best possible locations, anywhere in the world. The fellowship is awarded to postdocs for up to five years. The fellowship is international and covers all scientific fields. Besides a passion for the research itself, Branco Weiss Fellows share the desire of communicating beyond their own field of study and with society at large.
• The Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science awards fellowships to outstanding postdoctoral researchers around the world.

Priority Areas

• Scientific Excellence: Applicants must demonstrate that rare ability to excel within the constraints of academia while at the same time pursuing utterly original research that transcends the boundaries of disciplines. The more original and non-conformist their idea is, the more likely it is to be shortlisted. The fellowship seeks to form a community of scholars who aspire to one of Branco Weiss’s mottos: “make an impact.” Successful applicants are those with the determination and imagination to make this happen.
• Independent Research: In the past, the fellowship has received many applications that are merely follow-ups or a piece of a large-scale research project. These applications are not what is being sought. The Branco Weiss Fellowship is reserved for junior scientists who have developed a project idea on their own and who might find it a challenge to find support because their thinking is deemed to be out of the box and falls between existing disciplinary silos.
• Intellectual Curiosity and Social Commitment: One of the overall aims of the fellowship is to create new scopes for research that might potentially open up new fields. Often this requires a stimulus that can only come from dialog between different scientific fields.
• Communication Skills: One thing Branco Weiss Fellows have in common is a passion for communicating. They engage in dialog not just with their peers, but also across scientific boundaries and with society at large.
• Mobility: The fellowship provides an unusual degree of freedom. Fellows are encouraged to take advantage of their perks and choose the best home institution in the world to perform their research.

Funding Information

• Fellows are awarded a fellowship amounting to a maximum of CHF 600,000 for a maximum of five years to carry out their research project.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Fellowship is open to researchers from all disciplines and to citizens of all nationalities. There are no restrictions on biological age.
• At the time of the submission deadline, applicants must hold a doctorate (PhD) or must have successfully passed their doctoral examination. Applicants must have obtained their doctorate (PhD) a maximum of five years before the submission deadline. The date of the examination or of the certificate is decisive.
• Professors and lecturers with or without tenure or tenure track are not eligible to apply for a fellowship.
• Scientists with a permanent employment are not eligible to apply for a fellowship.
• Applications not complying with the eligibility criteria will be rejected on formal grounds.

Evaluation Criteria

• The evaluation comprises three steps:
  • Reduction of the written applications to a short list by the Directorate and experts from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich.
  • Peer review of the short-listed written proposals by independent external experts. The selected candidates have to provide copies of their doctoral degree certificates, and support letters are requested. The Directorate decides which candidates will be invited to an interview.
  • Interviews with a committee of experts from various fields chaired by the Directorate. External experts might be invited to individual interviews to complement the expertise of the committee.

Application Requirements

• The application must consist of:
  • A description of the proposed research project (max. 5 pages, including abstract, timelines, tentative milestones and references) 2/4
  • The applicant’s curriculum vitae including a list of publications (max. 4 pages including publications)
  • A motivation letter including an explanation of why the proposed research differs from the mainstream (max. 1 page)
  • Copies of three publications (no doctoral theses, no books, only peer-reviewed journal articles or individual book chapters)
  • 5 reviewer suggestions of different research institutions (to be entered directly in the online application). The applicant should not stand in any scientific relationship to the suggested persons, which means that they should not have published together, have worked together, or plan to work together.

For more information, visit The Branco Weiss Fellowship.