The CYD Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship is open for its 14th call, with the first deadline on August 19, 2026. The programme offers up to two years of salary, research funds, and conference money to work on cybersecurity and AI at the CYD Campus — Switzerland's national cyber-defence research environment. If your work touches cybersecurity, data science, AI, or digital trust and you are at the postdoctoral stage, this is worth serious attention before the summer cutoff.
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About the Programme
The CYD Campus is a cyber-competence centre created by the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport. It operates on the premises of EPFL and ETH Zurich, with an additional office in Thun. The Swiss government created it to connect academic research with national cyber-defence. Fellows work in an environment with real operational relevance not just theoretical interest.
The fellowship is administered by the CYD Campus and hosted through EPFL's research funding infrastructure. It targets postdoctoral researchers willing to engage with applied cyber-defence problems from anywhere in the world.
What You Actually Get
The fellowship covers:
- Salary contribution, including social security benefits, is set according to the host institution's pay scale, not a flat stipend. At EPFL, postdoctoral salaries typically fall in the CHF 82,000–94,000 per year range based on market data, but your actual figure depends on your host institution and seniority level.
- Research costs: up to CHF 3,000 per year. The money covers specific project equipment only. General IT hardware does not qualify.
- Conference costs: up to CHF 5,000 per year for travel, registration, and attendance.
- Duration: up to two years.
What the fellowship does not cover: relocation costs, dependent allowances, and general IT equipment. Switzerland is an expensive country. CHF 82,000–94,000 gross per year is workable in Lausanne, but it is not generous by Swiss private sector standards. Plan accordingly.
Full Eligibility
- The programme is open to researchers of any nationality. There is no age limit.
- You must be at a postdoctoral level, meaning you hold a PhD and are working beyond your doctorate.
- Your research must engage with cyber-defence topics in at least one of the four priority areas listed below.
- Your project must involve researchers from the CYD Campus and at least one Swiss higher education institution in a collaborative effort.
- You must secure the endorsement of a professor at a Swiss higher education institution before submitting your Stage 2 application. You do not need this at Stage 1, but you will not advance without it.
- Critical disqualifier: Fellows cannot conduct the CYD-funded research in the same lab where they completed their PhD or where they are currently doing a postdoc. That is a hard rule, not a preference.
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What You Will Research
The programme focuses on four cross-cutting themes:
- Protection of cyber and cyber-physical systems, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of digital and physical-digital infrastructure
- Information sharing, data fusion, and crowdsourcing: how data moves, merges, and scales across security-relevant systems
- Data science and AI for cyber-defence, applying machine learning and data analysis to security and technology intelligence problems
- Security, privacy, and digital trust technologies are the technical and policy mechanisms that underpin trusted digital environments
The programme publishes a prioritised topics list in the call guidelines. Read it before committing to a research direction. Fit with those priorities is a Stage 1 evaluation criterion.
Documents Required
Based on the published application process:
- Pre-proposal: a research concept document outlining your project, its relevance to CYD campus priorities, and the collaborative structure. Stage 1 submission only. No Swiss supervisor endorsement required at this stage.
- CV and academic record: excellent grade transcripts are a primary evaluation criterion. Have them ready and in English.
- Full research proposal: required at Stage 2 only, after you are shortlisted and matched with a CYD Campus mentor.
- Supervisor endorsement: a professor at a Swiss higher education institution must formally endorse your Stage 2 application. Identify and approach this person before Stage 2. The CYD mentor assigned at Stage 1 is your entry point for building that connection.
All documents must be submitted in English through the online platform: epflresearchfunds.gomovein.com
Read the application guidelines and Application Toolkit on the official EPFL programme page: epfl.ch/research/funding/epfl-programmes/cyd/cyd-postdoc
Prep timeline: Stage 1 closes August 19. If you need to contact a prospective Swiss supervisor to discuss research alignment, do that now. Professors in Europe are often on reduced availability in July. The supervisor conversation is optional at Stage 1 — it is critical groundwork for Stage 2.
The Two-Stage Selection Process
Stage 1: Your pre-proposal goes to a CYD campus internal committee chaired by the campus director. They evaluate fit with the programme's aims. Candidates who clear Stage 1 are matched with a prospective CYD Campus mentor. That mentor interviews them and decides whether to endorse their Stage 2 application. No endorsement means no path forward.
Stage 2: If endorsed, you submit a full research proposal by October 1, 2026 (17:00 CEST). A committee of 3–5 members drawn from the CYD Campus and Swiss universities makes the final decision. The primary evaluation criterion is excellence: academic record, professional accomplishments, and the quality and impact potential of your proposed research. Results for the 14th call are announced by the end of November 2026.
Is This Open to All Nationalities?
Yes. Any nationality, no age limit. Researchers from outside the EU and EEA should check Swiss permit requirements with the CYD Campus or their host institution's international office. Whether the fellowship covers that process is unconfirmed. Switzerland is not in the EU, which means visa and permit requirements apply differently than they would for a fellowship at a German or Dutch institution.
GizPulse Verdict
Is this worth applying for? For a postdoctoral researcher working in cybersecurity, AI for security, or digital trust, the CYD fellowship is one of the few programmes that gives you access to an applied security environment rather than another conference room. The salary tracks EPFL's standard postdoctoral pay scale, which is competitive within European academic norms.
Who the ideal candidate looks like: A postdoctoral researcher 1–3 years beyond their PhD, with a clear and specific research question in one of the four priority areas, and at least one existing connection to the Swiss academic ecosystem or the initiative to build one before the Stage 2 deadline.
The programme rewards candidates who can write a research proposal linked directly to CYD Campus priorities, not a recycled version of their dissertation.
Who should pause: Anyone without a PhD, anyone who would need to continue research in their current or doctoral laboratory, and anyone who cannot credibly identify a Swiss higher education supervisor willing to support their application. The supervisor requirement at Stage 2 is real and cannot be papered over.
