Engineering for Development (ETH4D) Doctoral Mentorship Program 2025/2026 (Fully Funded to ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

Application Deadline:  30 March 2025.

Applications are now open for the 2025/2026 Engineering for Development (ETH4D) Doctoral Mentorship Program. ETH4D provides grants for mentoring doctoral candidates from low- and lower-middle-income countries. The mentorship is a one-year appointment and comprises the following components:

• Financial support for attending a conference and/or research material
• Mentorship from one ETH professor, senior scientist or postdoc over a period of one year of the mentee’s doctoral studies. We suggest monthly meetings and clearly defined goals of the project, e.g., presentation at a conference, joint publication. ETH mentors are free to serve on the doctoral committee of the ETH4D mentee, but this is not a requirement. 
• Research stay at the mentor’s research group (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) for 1-3 months during the mentorship period. 

Eligibility Requirements

• Eligible are doctoral candidates who are registered at a university or research institute in a low- and middle-income country according to the external pageOECD/DAC list. Priority is given to applications from least-developed, lower-income, and lower-middle income countries.
• The application needs to be submitted by the ETH professorship hosting the doctoral candidate. Applications directly submitted by the doctoral candidate will NOT be considered.

Expenses Covered

The grant covers expenses up to a maximum of 15k CHF and includes the following:

• Economy roundtrip ticket (max. 2 kCHF) to and from Switzerland for the research stay
• Visa fees
• Travel allowance to attend an academic conference
• Research material (e.g. lab equipment) (max 6 kCHF in total).
• Fees for health insurance
• Local transportation
• Accommodation
• Living allowance for the duration of the research stay at ETH Zurich

Application Document

• Budget (Downloadtemplate budget (XLSX, 15 KB))
• A single PDF contianing the following
  • Project description (see criteria document for points that need to be addressed)
  • Work plan for the stay in Zurich in the form of a Gantt chart
  • Motivation letter of the doctoral candidate (1 page)
  • Most recent university transcripts 
  • CV of doctoral candidate (max. 2 pages) incl. publications
  • One academic reference letter
  • Support letter of the hosting ETH professor, including any financial and in-kind contributions
  • Doctoral project proposal (if available)

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Engineering for Development (ETH4D) Doctoral Mentorship Program