Nine USI Projects Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation Under Project Funding

Nine research projects from USI and its affiliated institutes, or developed in collaboration with other universities, have secured funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through the October 2025 Project Funding call. The total support awarded to USI amounts to nearly 7 million francs, spanning the Academy of Architecture, the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, the Faculty of Informatics, and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB).

Project Funding is one of the main instruments of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to support scientific research. Researchers with at least 4 years of postdoctoral experience, active at a Swiss academic institution, are eligible to apply. Projects can last up to four years, with a maximum funding of CHF 250,000 per year per applicant.

Below are the selected USI projects:

Academy of Architecture

• Prof. Sonja Hildebrand – André Corboz's hermeneutics of urban and territorial form: research practices, concepts and methodologies (CHF 970,993 with EPFL, of which CHF 688,133 allocated to USI)
  The project analyses the research practices and methodologies of André Corboz to understand their impact on urban and territorial studies, reconstructing his entire intellectual journey from the 1950s to the 2000s. Through an interlocutory, interdisciplinary approach, it investigates his cross-methodological practices and their contribution to the study of complex phenomena. Three sub-projects delve into urban imaginaries, the case of Geneva, and territorial configurations, embedding his work in the international debate. The goal is to strengthen reflection on the scientific nature of the built environment disciplines and to foster greater awareness of the relationship between humans and the environment.

Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society

• Prof. Lonneke van der Plas – Decoding non-coding RNA functions with biologically informed artificial intelligence (CHF 3,999,498 with the University of Bern, EPFL, and Idiap, of which CHF 955,160 allocated to USI)
  The interdisciplinary project leverages advanced AI methods, including large language models, to learn informative representations of RNA sequences. By modeling RNA as a structured language, we seek to uncover the deep features and contextual dependencies embedded within its sequence. In parallel, we interpret what these models learn, probing the internal representations to understand what biological information they capture, how they encode structure, regulation, and function, and what this reveals about the underlying grammar of RNA biology. 

Faculty of Biomedical Sciences

• Prof. Emiliano Albanese – Education, work and Cognitive Stimulation across the Life-course: Evidence from Natural Policy Experiments (CHF 1,129,690 with UNIL, of which CHF 181,260 allocated to USI)
  The project analyses how public policies on education and retirement affect the risk of dementia and cognitive decline over a lifetime. Overcoming the limitations of observational studies, it uses natural policy experiments and international longitudinal data to identify causal effects. The goal is to better understand the processes that build cognitive reserve and the role of policy in fostering it. By integrating comparative data across countries and over time, the project aims to provide new evidence for population-level prevention strategies.

Faculty of Informatics

• Prof. Patrick Eugster – QUERIER: Quantum network protocol specification and verification (CHF 529,532)
  The project studies quantum networks, distributed systems that enable secure communications through the distribution of entangled pairs (Bell pairs) between nodes. Leveraging these properties, quantum networks enhance existing applications and unlock new possibilities, such as cryptographic key distribution with unconditional security. However, their large-scale realisation is complex due to physical and operational constraints, such as the no-cloning theorem and decoherence. QUERIER addresses these challenges by developing formal methods to specify and verify network protocols, with the goal of ensuring their correctness.
• Prof. Fernando Pedone – DRaFT: Disaggregating Resources for Fault-Tolerant Distributed Systems (CHF 557,528)
  The project explores the paradigm of disaggregated memory, where compute and memory resources are separated and connected via a network, offering greater flexibility and efficiency in data centres. However, this shift introduces new challenges, such as heterogeneous access costs, wider failure domains, and diverse consistency requirements. DRaFT develops a unifying abstract model to describe these architectures and guide the design of fault-tolerant distributed systems. The project also re-evaluates fundamental problems like consensus and replication, adapting them to this context. Finally, it validates the results through simulations and prototypes, aiming to define next-generation distributed infrastructures.

Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB)

• Prof. Andrea Cavalli – Therapeutic Strategies to Stabilise and Activate PTEN in Cancers and Rare Disorders with Monoallelic PTEN Loss (CHF 1,000,000)
  The project aims to develop new therapies for prostate cancer and the rare genetic condition PTEN Hamartoma Tumour Syndrome (PHTS), both of which are associated with alterations in the PTEN tumour suppressor gene. Instead of replacing the defective gene, the approach focuses on stabilising and boosting the remaining functional PTEN protein to prevent its degradation. This strategy could lead to the first targeted therapies for patients with partial PTEN loss—a frequent occurrence in advanced prostate cancers—and offer new prospects for children affected by PHTS.
• Prof. Petr Cejka – The role of BRCA1 and BRCA2 protein complexes in the maintenance of genome stability (CHF 993,600)
  This research builds on studies previously funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and focuses on the roles of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 protein complexes in DNA repair. Because mutations in these genes are common in breast and ovarian cancers, a better understanding of their mechanisms of action will help develop new strategies to counteract therapy resistance.
• Prof. Silvia Monticelli – Post-transcriptional regulation of T lymphocyte responses by RNA-binding proteins (CHF 999,808)
  The project investigates how RNA-binding proteins regulate the function of T lymphocytes in the immune system. By analysing these important yet understudied molecular regulators, the study aims to clarify the fundamental mechanisms governing immune responses, with potential long-term therapeutic implications.
• Prof. Davide Robbiani – Autoantibodies to immune factors during viral infection (CHF 999,672)
  The project investigates why individuals react differently to viral infections, focusing on the role of autoantibodies—specifically antibodies that target components of the immune system itself. While often associated with harmful effects, some autoantibodies might actually protect against severe forms of disease, opening up new therapeutic perspectives based on the body's natural immune mechanisms. This project is conducted in collaboration with the Clinica Moncucco in Lugano and the CHUV (Lausanne University Hospital).

These results reinforce USI's role as an international research hub capable of contributing significantly to both scientific progress and social and economic well-being, representing an outstanding outcome amid increasing budget cuts at the Swiss National Science Foundation.