Deadline: 09-Oct-2025
The Swiss Polar Institute is seeking applications for its SPI Exploratory Grants to support Swiss-based scientists in polar regions and remote high-altitude areas like the Andes and the Himalayas.
These grants are designed to support Swiss-based scientists active in polar regions and remote high-altitude regions by allowing them to launch short-term new ideas, fund additional fieldwork, or launch new collaborations with financial support for logistics. Grants can also be used for the acquisition of polar data and samples through innovative methods. Collaboration with new teams or across disciplines is particularly encouraged, as well as participation in larger/international activities.
The grants are intended to cover costs up to CHF 75,000 per project, with the total budget for 2025 capped at CHF 150,000. Eligible costs include travel to scientific stations, shipment of equipment and samples, and the purchase of small equipment and consumables in justified cases. Also eligible are rental of scientific equipment, acquisition of remotely sensed data, and funding for fieldwork carried out by local partners. A maximum of CHF 15,000 can be used for preliminary analysis of data or samples immediately following fieldwork. The offset of carbon emissions is also an eligible cost if not offered by the institution.
Non-eligible costs include overhead, salaries for permanent positions, costs related to scientific exchange or workshops, and initiatives not directly part of a research activity, such as sports, arts, or outreach.
The grants are open to established researchers and post-docs who are at least three years post-PhD graduation. They must be employed by a Swiss public research institution. Researchers from all fields, including those not typically associated with polar sciences like engineering, medicine, humanities, and social sciences, are encouraged to apply.
The geographical focus is on polar regions—the Arctic and Antarctic—and high-altitude regions, with funding for the latter concentrating on projects that contribute to comparative high-altitude studies supporting polar issues and on complex and expensive fieldwork logistics. Applicants are asked to consider the environmental impact of their project and explicitly state efforts made to reduce it.
To apply, a complete application file must be submitted through the online application form and must include a completed online form, letters of support, CVs of the applicant and main partners, and a completed carbon assessment tool. The deadline for submissions is 9 October 2025 at 12:00 Swiss time. No late applications will be accepted
Proposals will be evaluated by an external scientific panel based on criteria including scientific merit, originality, feasibility, the experience of the principal investigator and partners, and the added value of the requested funding. The evaluation results will be provided to applicants approximately four months after the submission deadline. Successful applicants will receive a grant agreement outlining the conditions of the grant.
For more information, visit Swiss Polar Institute.
