Join the DBC
If you want to join any of the existing groups, please contact the group leaders. Potential PhD students may want to join the QB Program and potential PostDocs are invited to apply for SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowships.
The Department of Computational Biology (DBC) also actively promotes careers of junior independent investigators. New fully funded faculty positions in the DBC will be announced on various channels, including Twitter and SuccessFactor.
An alternative option to join the DBC as a group leader is through external funding. Specifically, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) offers three funding schemes for junior group leaders:
● Ambizione grants are aimed at young researchers who wish to conduct, manage and lead an independent project at a Swiss higher education institution. The scheme supports young researchers both from Switzerland and abroad.
● PRIMA grants are aimed at excellent women researchers who show a high potential for obtaining a professorship. PRIMA grantees conduct an independent research project with their own team at a Swiss research institution.
● SNSF Eccellenza Professorial Fellowships are aimed at highly qualified young researchers who aspire to a permanent professorship. Eccellenza supports them in achieving their goal by allowing them to lead a generously funded research project for up to five years with their own team at a Swiss higher education institution.
Also the European Research Council (ERC) offers Starting Grants for talented early-career scientists who have already produced excellent supervised work, and are ready to work independently as research leaders (note that ERC grants are currently replaced by equivalent SNSF grants).
The DBC welcomes researchers in the field of Computational Biology who are interested in developing their independent research with the help of the above mentioned funding schemes. The DBC currently has principal investigators supported by an SNSF Eccellenza grant and had several Eccellenza Professors in the past.
In case you would like to apply for such an externally funded position in the DBC, please send your letter of interest, containing a CV, a short project presentation (up to three pages) and the names of three referees as a single pdf file to Sven Bergmann at least 4 months before the application deadline.
We will support strong candidates with research complementary to our current strengths and fitting with our overall department vision by providing feedback in the grant writing and preparation for the interview stage. In the case of a successful grant application, the DBC commits to offering space, free access to substantial computing infrastructure, a travel budget, logistic and administrative support.
