ETH Pioneer Fellowship

Applications for the Pioneer Fellowship will be accepted if the following main criteria are met:

• 1-2 entrepreneurial qualified applicants who wish to commercialise results of research at ETH Z¨¹rich;
• ETH Master or Doctoral students and ETH researchers
• A company has not yet been incorporated;
• The project is fully supported by a host professor of ETH Zurich;
• A promising business case; 
• for Social Impact Pioneer Fellowships only: a promising business case serving people who live with less than 10 USD per day in low- and middle-income countries. All countries on the OECD DAC List 2024 are eligible (see DownloadOECD DAC-LIST 2024 (PDF, 640 KB)vertical_align_bottom).

The applications are evaluated based on the following criteria:

• How does the application fit in with the vision, mission and objectives of the Pioneer Fellowship?
• How significant is the Pioneer Fellowship for the realization of the project?
• What is the innovation degree of the technology compared to the State-of-Art?
• Does the Technology Readiness Level meet the program requirements?
• What is the Intellectual Property situation and freedom to operate?
• Are the planned project objectives comprehensible and realistic?
• Does the market readiness level meet the program requirements?
• What is the project¡¯s impact to society?
• Is the serviceable obtainable market large enough to sustain a future company?
• What is the quality of the application and the entrepreneurial mindset of the candidate(s)?
• What is the quality of the interview session (i.e. presentation and Q&A)?

The most promising projects are invited to an interview with the evaluation board. The interview takes place in-person at the ETH Z¨¹rich. You must reserve about 30 minutes for it.

Collaborators of the project are encouraged to also participate in the interview process.

The  following CAS continuing education courses are an integral part of the Pioneer Fellowship:

• CAS ETH Entrepreneurial Leadership in Technology Ventures (CAS ETH ELTV). Tuition fees apply.

• For Social Impact Pioneer Fellows only: CAS ETH in Development and Cooperation (CAS ETH DC), free of charge.

Successful applicants will be awarded a lump sum of 150'000 CHF to cover salary costs of the applicant(s) and other expenses in support of the project. Pioneer Fellows are employed as Scientific staff of ETH Z¨¹rich (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeitende).

The Fellowship is up to 150'000 CHF, regardless of the number of applicants and level of education. 

After deducting salary expenses, Pioneer Fellows may freely dispose of the residual funds for their project expenses. All expenses must be clearly dedicated to the Pioneer Fellows¡¯ project. 

Allowed expenses include e.g.:

• running costs, 
• travel/field expenses and industry fairs 
• tuition fee for a Certificate of Advanced Studies 

Further details on allowed and not allowed expenses are listed in the guidelines.

As Pioneer Fellows are ETH employees, all intellectual property originated by them, such as patents, copyrights, models, trademarks, and so on (including new technologies, software, prototypes, etc.) is owned by ETH.

If you wish to commercialise the results from your Fellowship through your spin-off, a license agreement with ETH transfer will be negotiated, giving you rights to do so.

At the yearly flaghsip event of the Pioneer Fellowship Program, the 3 Pi competition, Pioneer Fellows compete in a pitching battle with only Pi (3.14) minutes time to present their projects.