The Zeno Karl Schindler/EPFL Prize is a yearly award funded by the Zeno Karl Schindler Foundation and granted on its behalf by EPFL’s Research Awards Commission.
It honours one EPFL postdoc for excellent research in environmental sciences or sustainability done at EPFL in Lausanne: a postdoctoral project with publications, or a doctoral thesis with its research and publications.
Benefits & funding
- A prize of CHF 20,000.
- One prize a year; it rewards completed work, and the page states no duties attached.
Eligibility
- EPFL postdocs who earned their doctorate no more than 5 years before that year’s deadline; parental leave, illness or accident, and continuing education are taken into account.
- The work must have been done at EPFL, in environmental sciences and/or sustainability.
- Tenure-track assistant professors (PATT) and SNSF-funded professors (Prof boursier) are excluded.
- Open to any nationality.
- A candidate may resubmit only once.
Can you apply?
Here's who can apply
Decoded from the official rules. A free account checks them against your passport, degree and age in seconds.
“For EPFL Postdocs having earned their doctorate at most 5 years before the yearly deadline for application to the prize (the following exceptions will be taken into consideration: maternity, paternity, adoption or parental leave / inability to work due to illness or accident / continuing education).” Eligibility
Education required
PhD
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Application process
- 1Be nominated by an EPFL professor, or apply directly to the EPFL Research Office.
- 2Prepare a supporting letter with a detailed justification from your unit’s professor or PI, the addresses of three international referees, and a scientific report of up to 5 pages.
- 3Upload the file to the nomination platform by the deadline.
- 4A candidate can be proposed for one EPFL award only.
Program timeline
2 March 2027
application deadline (EPFL awards page); the foundation page states 1 March of the award year.