Lake Zurich at golden hour with the Swiss Alps in the background and trees on the shoreline.

Switzerland Open on a twice-yearly cycle — the next deadline is 1 September 2026, then 1 March 2027. Secure your Eawag host mentor well before the date; a proposal without an endorsing mentor cannot be submitted

Eawag Partnership Programme (EPP) Fellowship

Be clear about what this is before you plan around it: the Eawag Partnership Programme fellowship is not a degree scholarship. It does not pay tuition and it does not enrol you in a Swiss programme. It funds a three-to-four-month research stay at Eawag, Switzerland's federal aquatic research institute, while you stay registered for your master's or PhD at your home university. For a Sri Lankan researcher at Peradeniya, Moratuwa, Ruhuna or the Open University working on water quality, sanitation, aquatic ecology or urban water management, that is a very specific and very useful thing — access to Swiss laboratories, a named Eawag mentor, and a credential that carries weight when you later apply for a full doctorate in Europe. Eawag runs the programme, established in 2008, expressly to build research careers in non-OECD countries, and Sri Lanka is a non-OECD country. The grant covers an international return flight, a stay in the Eawag guest house or the equivalent, a public transport ticket for Zürich, and a daily allowance. Eawag does not publish the daily allowance figure, so treat the package as covering your travel and subsistence for the stay rather than as an income — ask the programme office for the current rate before you build a budget. The gate that stops most applicants is not money or grades: before you submit anything, you have to identify an Eawag group leader who agrees in writing to act as your host, supervisor and mentor. That is cold outreach, and it takes months. There are two deadlines a year, 1 March and 1 September, and the age limit is 40.

Eawag — Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

External Organization-funded

emoji_events Award Overview

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Covers

Return Flight, Housing, Transport, Daily Allowance

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Duration

3-4 Month Research Visit

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Deadlines

1 March and 1 September, Every Year

fact_check Eligibility Criteria

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Enrolled at a Non-OECD Institution

You must be a master's or PhD student registered at an academic institution in a non-OECD country. Sri Lanka qualifies. You stay enrolled at your Sri Lankan university throughout — the fellowship is a visit, not a transfer.

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Water-Related Research Topic

Your work must be on environmentally, technically or socially relevant water issues. Eawag's departments cover aquatic ecology, environmental chemistry, urban water management, water and sanitation in developing countries (Sandec), fish ecology, surface waters and process engineering, among others.

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An Eawag Host Mentor Must Endorse You

Before submission you have to identify an Eawag group leader who agrees to act as your host, supervisor and mentor, and who provides a statement supporting your application. This is the real bottleneck. Read recent Eawag papers in your area, then write to the group leader with a concrete, short proposal rather than a generic request.

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Age Limit of 40

Applicants must be 40 or under at the time of application. There is no nationality quota beyond the non-OECD requirement, and selection is by a competitive EPP selection committee.

account_tree Application Process

Identify and secure an Eawag group leader as host

Browse Eawag's eleven research departments, find the group whose work overlaps yours, and email the group leader directly. Expect this step to take two to three months. No mentor, no application.

Write the two-page project proposal

Maximum two pages, minimum font size 11, submitted as PDF. It must cover your overall research question and methodology, the relevance of the work to Sri Lanka, the specific objectives and outputs of the fellowship itself, why Eawag is the right host, and how the stay advances your career.

Submit by 1 March or 1 September with your CV and mentor statement

Complete the EPP application form, attach the proposal, a two-page CV including key publications, and your Eawag host mentor's endorsing statement. Applications go through the EPP form on eawag.ch; queries go to the programme office.

If selected, apply for a Swiss visa in Colombo

A stay of three to four months requires a Swiss national visa (type D), not a Schengen tourist visa. Sri Lankan applicants apply through the Swiss representation handling Sri Lanka and its designated visa application centre in Colombo, using the Eawag invitation and fellowship letter as supporting evidence. Start visa steps as soon as your award is confirmed.

Why Eawag?

Eawag is the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and part of the ETH Domain, the federal research family that includes ETH Zürich and EPFL. It works across eleven research departments from campuses at Dübendorf near Zürich and Kastanienbaum on Lake Lucerne, and it is one of the world's leading water research institutes. Its Sandec department, which focuses on water and sanitation in developing countries, has a long history of collaboration with South Asian partner institutions, which makes it a natural first point of contact for a Sri Lankan applicant.