Applications Invited for ETH4D Research to Action Grants

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About the Organization

Despite unprecedented progress in poverty reduction over the last 25 years, around 800 million people still live on less than two dollars per day, without adequate access to food, drinking water, electricity, mobility, and other basic services.

At the same time, many countries struggling with extreme poverty are currently among the most dynamic economies in the world, creating new opportunities to use innovative approaches to address social and environmental challenges.

The rapid expansion of mobile phone technology and solar energy have had tremendous impacts on development over the past ten years. Now technologies such as digitization, 3D-printing, block chain, remote sensing, and robotics might offer the same promise.

However, much of the potential of technological innovation for addressing the persistent challenges of those in poverty remains untapped. ETH4D believes that universities have a responsibility to ensure that technological progress benefits the global population.

ETH4D aims to combine technological innovation with a profound understanding of people’s behavior and their environments to identify new solutions for improving the lives of poor people. ETH4D therefore supports research, which combines the knowledge and skills of engineering, the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities and promotes the collaboration between scientific research, civil society, industry and policy.

ETH4D aims to educate the future leaders of sustainable development. ETH4D will train a new generation of engineers and natural scientists able to develop, implement and scale world-changing innovations with a global perspective.

About the Grant

The ETH4D Research to Action Grant aims to ensure that research results are being used, implemented, and disseminated. It supports ETH Zurich bachelor students, master students, doctoral candidates, post-docs, senior scientists, and professors to develop prototypes, explore opportunities for entrepreneurship and discuss their work with practitioners.

The grant sum is up to 5 kCHF for students and postdocs and 20 kCHF for professors and senior scientists.

Eligibility

• Who: Bachelor students, master students, doctoral students, post-doctoral scientists, senior scientists, and professors are eligible to apply. Students must be enrolled at the time activities are carried out. Projects require a collaborating non-academic partner, based in the project’s country of focus and need a letter of support from the non-academic partner. Collaborations should follow the external page KPFE Guide for Transboundary Research Partnerships.
• What: Projects need to (i) have an institutional link to ETH Zurich e.g. previous research or courses taken at ETH or be connected with ETH initiatives and (ii) demonstrate global development-​related impact by bridging the gap between research and practice. Please note that the grant does not cover expenses in the past.
• Where: Preference will be given to activities in countries listed as “least developed, low- and lower-middle-income country” according to the external page DAC-list of the OECD. Applications with a focus area outside of the DAC-list should justify their selection.

How to Apply

Detailed budget (Download template budget (XLSX, 15 KB)). The activities described in the project description should be accounted for in the budget. Please note that this grant does not cover expenses from the past.

Single PDF containing the following:

• Project description and objectives (Download template project description (DOCX, 16 KB))
• Project work plan and timeline in the form of a Gantt chart
• Letter of support from the non-academic partner or collaborator in the country of focus
• Financial confirmation letter by ETH professor or unit (more details in the criteria document)
• CV of the applicant, including publication list (max. 2 pages)
• One reference letter from within ETH (not necessary for applications from professors)

Please read the Download Eligibility Criteria and Application Requirements (PDF, 164 KB) before applying.

All documents must be uploaded in the electronic application form.

The next application deadline is 30 March 2025.

For more information please check the Link

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Tags Entrepreneurship Innovations and Technology Research Others