Last November, actionuni representatives had their annual exchange meeting with SNF representatives. At the meeting, questions from actionuni members to the SNF are discussed and actionuni gives input to current development of the SNF.

This years main topics were:

1. Mobility as a selection criterion is obsolete: The SNF agrees that geographical mobility of young researchers as a criterion to judge a researchers’ professional network has become outdated, considering the way researchers are connecting nowadays through digital ways and means. The SNF this year aims to revise the requirements of its funding instruments accordingly.
2. Stronger promotion of Post-Docs: Influencing employment conditions of post-doctoral researchers towards more unlimited contracts or Tenure Track is not possible through SNF as these are within the universities’ own competencies.
3. Centralized evaluation strategy of SNF funding applications, starting 2021: By using centralized remote or panel-evaluation, the SNF aims to standardize the assessment and selection of candidates. Consequently, local selection committees (Forschungskommissionen) will be abrogated.