Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship Awards for PostgraduateInternational Students, Switzerland

Description
The Swiss Government, through the Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students (FCS), awards various postgraduate scholarships to foreign scholars and researchers:

• University scholarships (Swiss universities, Federal Institutes of Technology as well as Universities of Applied Sciences)
• Arts scholarships (schools of music and fine arts, only for a limited number of countries).
• These scholarships provide graduates from all fields with the opportunity to pursue doctoral or postdoctoral research in Switzerland at one of the public funded university or recognized institution.

Eligibility

1. First class Master degree or equivalent University degree if applying for PhD studies/research or a First Class Doctoral Degree if applying for a Postdoctoral research.
2. For PhD studies/research, the candidate should not be more than 35 years old at the moment of the application.  For postdoctoral research,  there should not be a gap of more than 5 years between the award of the PhD and the application deadline.
3. Applicants should be residing in their home country at the moment of the application.  Applicants who are in Switzerland since more than 1 year are not eligible
4. Applicants must provide a letter (e-mail) from a Professor from the Swiss host institution stating that he/she is willing to supervise the Research, PhD, or the Postdoctoral research. For PhD studies, applicants must apply to the chosen Swiss University as well as for the scholarship.
5. Applicants must have a research proposal including a timeframe (this is the central piece of the application. The applicant must devote all required attention to it)
6. Applicants must be in command of the necessary language skills required for the Research, PhD Studies or the Postdoctoral research.

Application Procedure
Please go to the official site below and find the country-specific webpages.

Submission Deadline
End of October and early November 2012

Website Link
http://www.sbf.admin.ch/htm/themen/bildung/stipendien/eskas_en.html