Annual report shows increased competition for research funding in Switzerland

Researchers submitted substantially more projects to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in 2010 than in previous years, according to the annual review published this week. The steep increase of 17 per cent means competition for research funding has become very intense, with overall funding of CHF726 million (€592 million) and increase of only 2.7 per cent over 2009.

The pressure on the SNSF has been increasing for several years. Since 2007, the number of applications for project funding, the Foundation’s main funding scheme, has risen by an average of 10 per cent per annum. In 2010 the number of applications rose by 17 per cent to 2,784, in which an overall amount of CHF1.1 billion was requested.

In 2010, the SNSF awarded grants to 3,100 projects. The total funding amount was distributed as follows: 24 per cent to Humanities and Social Sciences; 34 to Mathematics, Natural and Engineering Sciences; and 42 per cent to Biology and Medicine.

Positive reviews are no guarantee

The SNSF says it is increasingly forced to reject projects of good quality or cut back on the requested funding. As a result, having fallen in 2009, the success rate again fell substantially, this time by 5 per cent to 56 per cent in 2010. At the same time, only 42 per cent of the total amount requested per application could be approved compared to 45 per cent in the previous year, although on average researchers did not request more money per project.

In career funding, the schemes the SNSF Professorships and Ambizione schemes had a success rate of only 22 per cent and 28 per cent respectively.

Reasons why demand is rising

The SNSF says the volume of applications it receives is increasing because of the growing number of scientific researchers at Swiss universities, their high work rate and continuing pressure to secure competitive third-party funding. The overhead contributions introduced in 2009, which allow for the reimbursement of indirect research costs, may be a further factor.

In 2010, the SNSF presented its strategic aims for 2012-2016 to the federal authorities. The targets include making Switzerland more attractive to junior researchers and bolstering the international competitiveness of Swiss researchers. The SNSF also wants to increase its support in basic research as well as knowledge and technology transfer.

The SNSF has already initiated measures from the multi-year programme that can be implemented without additional funds. For all other measures, in particular for the promotion of junior researchers, the SNSF will need additional funds and it says that without a substantial growth in federal contributions, it is unlikely it will succeed in implementing the necessary measures, while keeping grant award success rates stable.