Last verified: 16 August 2026
Stage 1 of the 14th CYD Doctoral Fellowship call closes on 19 August 2026 at 17:00 CEST. That is a short runway, and it is short on purpose. The first stage of this programme is not a full research proposal, so a focused couple of days can realistically produce a submission. What those two days cannot produce is a Swiss doctoral enrolment, and that is the single condition most people trip over. Read the eligibility section below before you open a blank document.
The CYD Doctoral Fellowships are run by EPFL together with the Cyber Defence (CYD) Campus, and they are supported by armasuisse Science and Technology, the research arm of Switzerland’s federal defence procurement organisation. The award pays a salary for four years, with a possible one year extension, plus separate budgets for research costs and for conferences. Fellows stay enrolled at a Swiss higher education institution while doing their research at the CYD Campus, which sits on the premises of EPFL and ETH Zurich and in an office in Thun.
The dates you are working against:
The 14th call runs on a two stage timetable, and the gap between the two stages is where most of the real work happens.
- Stage 1 submission deadline: 19 August 2026 at 17:00 CEST
- Mentor interview stage: after Stage 1, for shortlisted applicants only
- Stage 2 submission deadline: 1 October 2026 at 17:00 CEST
- Final decisions: end of November 2026
Two things are worth noticing about that schedule. First, the Stage 2 window is roughly six weeks, and inside those six weeks you need a full research proposal and a professor’s written endorsement. September is the start of the Swiss academic year, which is exactly when professors are least available. If you have any chance of reaching Stage 2, begin the conversation with your prospective endorser now rather than waiting for the shortlist email.
Second, decisions land at the end of November 2026. If you are planning your finances or a move to Switzerland around this, assume you will not have a confirmed answer before December.
The official page for this call does not announce dates for the next round, so if you miss 19 August, there is no published fallback date to plan around. Two of the other CYD fellowship formats do run on an open rolling call, which is covered further down.
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How the two stage process actually works:
This programme is unusual in that you are assessed on fit before you are assessed on your research plan. Understanding that order changes what you put in each submission.
Stage 1: the short pre proposal
Your Stage 1 package goes through the online submission platform, in English. It is reviewed by an internal CYD Campus committee, and the published criteria for this stage are narrow and specific: how well the candidate fits the CYD Campus, and how well the candidate’s pre proposal fits the aims of the programme.
Notice what is not being judged yet. This is not the stage where a beautifully engineered methodology section wins anything. The committee is asking whether you and your idea belong in a cyber defence competence centre. Write for that question.
The mentor interview in the middle
Applicants who clear Stage 1 are assigned a prospective CYD Campus mentor. That mentor interviews the applicant, and the purpose of the interview is stated plainly: the mentor is deciding whether they are willing to endorse the applicant for Stage 2.
Treat this as a real gate rather than a formality. A shortlist place gets you the conversation. The conversation is what gets you the right to submit a full proposal.
Stage 2: the full research proposal
Shortlisted applicants submit a complete research proposal by 1 October 2026 at 17:00 CEST. This is also the point where the paperwork tightens: written confirmations that were not needed at Stage 1 become mandatory here.
Who signs off
Final funding decisions are made by a committee chaired by the Director of the CYD Campus, with three to five members drawn from the CYD Campus and from Swiss higher education institutions. That composition matters when you write. Your proposal will be read by people from more than one institution and more than one specialism, so a document that only makes sense to somebody already inside your subfield is working against you.
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Who can apply:
The eligibility rules are refreshingly free of the usual filters, and then strict on one point that catches people out.
- Citizens of any nationality may apply
- No age restrictions apply
- You must be enrolled in a doctoral programme at a Swiss higher education institution
- You need the endorsement of a professor at the institution where you are enrolled
- Preference goes to applicants who have not yet started their PhD or who are at the beginning of it
The enrolment rule is the real filter
There is no nationality bar and no age bar, which is genuinely open by international standards. The Swiss doctoral enrolment requirement is what narrows the field. This is a fellowship that funds a PhD inside the Swiss system, not a scholarship that hands you a place in it. Securing that place is a separate process with its own timeline, its own admission requirements and its own supervisor conversations, and nothing in this call substitutes for it.
If you are outside Switzerland with no Swiss doctoral admission in progress, be honest with yourself about the timeline. The realistic move is to work on Swiss doctoral admission first and target a future CYD call, rather than rushing an application that cannot satisfy the core condition.
If your professor is at a school of applied sciences
There is a specific carve out here. You may seek the endorsement of a professor employed at a school of applied sciences, but you must provide written confirmation at Stage 2 that you are simultaneously enrolled in a doctoral programme at a Swiss university. The confirmation is not optional and it is not something you want to be chasing in late September.
The research themes your proposal has to sit inside:
The programme funds work in cyber defence broadly, and the published areas are:
- Confidentiality, integrity and availability of cyber systems and cyber physical systems
- Information sharing, data fusion and crowdsourcing
- Data science and artificial intelligence applied to cyber relevant and technology relevant data analysis
- Technologies for security, privacy and digital trust
Alongside the topic, there is a structural expectation that trips up otherwise strong proposals. Projects are expected to show significant research impact and a collaborative effort involving CYD Campus researchers together with at least one other Swiss institution. That is not a nice extra to mention in a closing paragraph. If your project is designed as solo work inside a single lab, it does not match what this call is asking for, and no amount of polish will fix that mismatch.
What the fellowship is actually worth:
Here is where you need precise language rather than the phrase “fully funded” doing all the work.
- Salary: a salary contribution including social security benefits, based on the salary scale associated with the applicant’s position
- Research costs: a maximum of CHF 3,000 per year
- Conference costs: a maximum of CHF 5,000 per year
- Duration: four years, with a possible one year extension
Read the wording on the salary carefully. The official page describes a salary contribution based on the applicant’s position and the associated scale. It does not publish a franc figure. In practice that means the number depends on the host institution’s own doctoral salary scale, so the only reliable way to know what you would actually be paid is to ask the host institution directly. Do not build a budget on an amount you saw quoted on a third party website, including this one.
The research and conference figures are ceilings, not automatic transfers. CHF 3,000 per year is described as a maximum that can be granted for research costs, and CHF 5,000 per year as a maximum for conference costs. Expect to justify what you spend.
Finally, note what is not mentioned anywhere in the published information: relocation costs, flights to Switzerland, visa or permit fees, and doctoral programme fees at your host institution. Their absence from the page is not a promise that they are excluded, but it is also not a promise that they are covered. Ask before you assume, especially if you are moving from outside Europe and the answer changes whether the move is affordable.
Even with those caveats, a four year salaried doctoral position with a dedicated conference budget is a strong package by any measure, and the conference allowance in particular is more generous than many PhD funding lines offer.
Where you would actually be based:
Fellows are hosted by a higher education institution in Switzerland and carry out their research at the CYD Campus. The campus operates on the premises of EPFL and ETH Zurich and from an office in Thun.
The CYD Campus itself describes its role as a cyber competence centre acting as an anticipation platform for identifying and assessing technologies and commercial and social cyber trends. That framing tells you something useful about the environment: it is oriented toward what is coming next rather than only toward what is already established, and the surrounding work is applied as well as academic. Applicants who want a purely theoretical four years in isolation are likely to find it a poor fit, and the selection process is designed to notice that.
How to make a Stage 1 submission that survives
A few things follow directly from how this call is structured, and they are worth acting on rather than reading past.
- Lead with fit. The Stage 1 criteria are fit with the CYD Campus and fit with the aims of the programme. A reader should be able to see that link inside your opening paragraph, not deduce it on page three.
- Name the collaboration. If the call expects CYD Campus researchers plus at least one other Swiss institution, say who and where in concrete terms rather than gesturing at “potential partnerships”.
- Respect the excellence criterion. The programme states plainly that the primary evaluation criterion is excellence as measured by academic records and professional accomplishments, and that candidates are expected to have excellent grade transcripts. That is unusually direct, and it means your transcript is being read, not skimmed.
- Write for a mixed committee. Three to five people from different institutions will read the final proposal. Jargon that only lands inside your niche costs you.
- Everything in English. All application material goes through the online platform in English. Budget time for translation if your existing documents are in another language.
- Read the guidelines before you write, not after. EPFL publishes application guidelines and an application toolkit alongside the call, and both are linked from the official page. Applications that ignore stated formatting and content requirements lose points for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the idea.
The other CYD Fellowships, if the doctoral route is not your stage
The doctoral award is one of four formats in the CYD Fellowships family, which is useful to know if the 19 August deadline is not realistic for you.
- CYD Master Thesis Fellowships: six months, with a living allowance and research funds, on an open rolling call
- CYD Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships: up to two years, with salary plus research and conference funds, sharing the 19 August 2026 deadline
- CYD Proof of Concept Fellowships: for applied research aimed at turning results into an innovative product or service, on an open rolling call
The two rolling call formats are worth remembering. A rolling call means there is no single annual cliff edge, which makes them a more forgiving entry point into the same ecosystem.
A quick word on application scams
Public research fellowships funded through a national science and technology body do not charge candidates for access, and they do not work through agents. Everything for this call goes through EPFL’s own submission platform. If somebody offers to submit on your behalf for a fee, guarantees you a place, or asks for payment to “process” a Swiss fellowship application, that is not how this programme operates. Apply through the official page, and if any part of the process looks unfamiliar, contact the EPFL Research Office in Lausanne directly rather than a third party.
The CYD Doctoral Fellowship is one of the more open doctoral funding routes in Europe on paper. No nationality restriction, no age limit, four years of salary, a real conference budget, and a research environment tied into Switzerland’s national cyber defence work. The catch is not hidden and it is not unfair: you have to already be inside, or on your way into, a Swiss doctoral programme, and your project has to be built for collaboration rather than for solitude.
Your next step depends on where you stand today. If you are enrolled or about to be, open the official EPFL page, read the application guidelines and toolkit, and get your Stage 1 pre proposal in before 19 August 2026 at 17:00 CEST. If you are not yet in a Swiss doctoral programme, spend the next few months on admission and supervisor conversations, and treat a future CYD call as the target you are building toward.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask for a fellowship shorter than four years?
Yes. The programme allows applicants to request less than the full four years where that matches when the thesis is expected to be completed. This is relevant if you have already started your doctorate and only need funding for the remaining stretch, though bear in mind that preference in selection still goes to those at or before the start of their PhD.
Is the CYD Campus mentor the same person as my doctoral supervisor?
No, and confusing the two roles causes real problems. Your endorsing professor is at the Swiss institution where you are enrolled and supervises your doctorate. The prospective CYD Campus mentor is assigned to you after Stage 1 and belongs to the CYD Campus side. They interview you to decide whether to endorse you for Stage 2. You need both relationships to work, and they are separate people with separate roles.
Can I hold this fellowship alongside another scholarship or paid work?
The official call page does not address combining the fellowship with other funding or with paid employment. Since this award pays a salary through a host institution, the answer is likely to depend on that institution’s own employment rules as much as on the fellowship’s terms. Put the question to the EPFL Research Office and to your host institution in writing before you accept anything else.
If Stage 1 does not go my way, can I apply again in a future call?
The published information does not state any limit on reapplying, and the programme has now reached its 14th call, so future rounds are clearly part of the plan. What is not published is a next call date. If reapplying matters to you, ask the Research Office directly whether an unsuccessful application affects a later one, rather than assuming either way.
What if my Swiss doctoral enrolment is only confirmed after the Stage 1 deadline?
This is the most common grey area in the whole call, and the published information does not settle it directly. What the page does show is that at least one enrolment related proof, the written confirmation required from applicants endorsed by a professor at a school of applied sciences, is due at Stage 2 rather than Stage 1. That suggests documentary proof is checked later in the process, but it is not a stated permission to apply with no enrolment at all. If your admission is genuinely in progress and you can evidence it, email the EPFL Research Office and ask before the deadline instead of guessing. A two line answer from them is worth more than any interpretation you will read online.
