Career Development Awards: Grants for young researchers
Demenz Forschung Schweiz - Stiftung Synapsis
Sponsorship area
Research
Sponsorship amount
CHF 200'000
Sponsorship term
from 2025
Dementia Research
The exact causes behind neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s remain unknown to this day. Researching these conditions is highly complex, particularly as they tend to quietly develop over the course of decades. As a result, in Switzerland we are currently only able to treat symptoms, but not the causes behind them.
There is not one sole type of dementia. And there may never be a universal cure for every type of the disease. Researchers believe there are several factors involved in the occurrence of dementing illnesses, including inflammatory reactions or the energy supply to neurons. More scientific research is urgently required to understand the links between these individual factors and how they ultimately result in a loss of neurons in the brain.
Dementia Research Switzerland - Synapsis Foundation is committed to gaining new insights into dementia and the underlying diseases. The Synapsis Foundation has already supported over 120 research projects and provided over CHF 30 million for research.
Career Development Award
Every year, talented young scientists are honored with the Career Development Award. With this talent promotion program, the Synapsis Foundation aims to secure the future of dementia research and promote innovative research approaches.
This funding mechanism supports advanced postdoctoral researchers working in the field of dementia research at a Swiss university or hospital who wish to establish themselves as independent researchers. The award was created to close a funding gap in the transition from a postdoctoral position to a teaching position at a public research institution. It is therefore a form of funding that complements the funding schemes of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
The Career Development Award consists of two phases : While the research project of postdoctoral researchers at a Swiss institution is funded with a maximum of CHF 200,000 during the first two years, the second phase comprises financial support for the establishment of a research group. The prerequisite for this is an independent position as group leader or assistant professor at a Swiss or European university.
Selected research projects from 2025
From 2025, the Synapsis Foundation will support two new research projects with the Career Development Award:
Dr. Marc van Oostrum, University of Basel, Biozentrum
- Project: “Exploring the proteomes of vulnerable synapse types in Alzheimer’s disease progression”
PhD Sylvain Perriot, CHUV, Center for Psychiatric Neurosciences
- Project: “Development of hiPSC-based biomarkers for precision medicine in frontotemporal dementia”
The Hirschmann Foundation supports both Career Development Awards with CHF 100,000 each for two years.
