USI Doctoral Mobility
USI provides support to internal doctoral students matriculated at the Università della Svizzera italiana who wish to improve their scientific profile by going abroad for a stay of 6-12 months during the PhD.
Duration of the stay abroad: when planning your research stay, please note that the mobility must finish before end of December 2027.
Financial support covers the additional costs for staying abroad, such as travel and living costs as well as fees for conferences and workshops of up to CHF 20'000. It is not meant to replace the PhD salary. Eligible costs may also include visa-related expenses, where applicable.
In 2026 there will be 2 submission deadlines: March 1st and September 1st.
The Research Commission reserves the right not to support applications that, although formally eligible, do not meet the quality standards of the call, in terms of scientific maturity, robustness of the proposal, and overall coherence of the planned mobility.
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Participation requirements
- applicants must be enrolled as doctoral students at USI but not employed in an ongoing SNSF research project;
- PhD students in biomedicine must have their thesis supervisor directly employed by USI (and not by IOR, IRB, or EOC) to be eligible.
- at the time of the submission deadline, applicants have been matriculated as doctoral students at USI for at least twelve months;
- applicants are Swiss nationals / hold a valid Swiss permanent residence or cross-border commuter permit / are married to a Swiss national / co-habit with a Swiss national in a registered partnership;
- the stay abroad must take place within the time-frame of the PhD. Applicants confirm in writing their intention to continue their doctoral studies and obtain their doctorate at USI;
- the selected place of research should not lie in the home country of the applicant (exceptions may be accepted for scientific reasons) and must be different from the place of education (BA and MA in particular).
Additional minimum requirements
In addition to the formal eligibility criteria, applications must demonstrate:
- clear evidence of substantial progress in the doctoral project, such as working papers, draft articles, thesis chapters, or comparable research outputs. Such evidence will be assessed in relation to the specific characteristics of the discipline and its standards of scientific production;
- documented participation in relevant academic conferences or workshops in the applicant's field of research;
- no other funded mobility (e.g SNSF Doc.Mobility or similar schemes), in order to avoid duplication of funding and to prioritise candidates who have not yet benefited from comparable opportunities.
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Submission
You have to contact Research Service at least 2 weeks before each deadline for questions and support.
Applications for USI mobility grants must be submitted to [email protected] using the attached application form. The applications must be completed and submitted electronically by the specified deadline.
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Evaluation
Applications that meet the formal requirements are evaluated scientifically by the USI Research Commission.
The following evaluation criteria are applied:
- quality, originality and topicality of the research project to be carried out during the research stay;
- scientific track record of the applicants;
- personal aptitude of the applicants:
- for successfully completing their doctoral studies as well as their actual chances of obtaining the doctorate following the mobility fellowship, and
- of embarking on a scientific career;
- quality of the intended research location (working conditions, possibilities for professional supervision and further education).