Submission deadline: 02.05.2023
Following a positive evaluation of the pilot phase, Spark is now part of the SNSF’s regular funding portfolio, with minor changes in the regulations. The next call opens on 3 April 2023 and closes on 2 May 2023.
The SNSF launched Spark as a funding scheme in 2019 subject to a two-year pilot phase. The goal was to fund original and unconventional projects that are unlikely to be funded under other funding schemes. The research community responded very positively to the novel scheme, which is based on a double-blind evaluation procedure. In the two pilot calls, researchers submitted a total of 1,632 applications to the SNSF. A budget of 10 million Swiss francs was available for each call. Thanks to the availability of additional funding in 2019, the SNSF was able to increase the budget for the first call to CHF 27 million. Thus, it funded 284 projects in 2019 and 103 projects in 2020.