Digitalization at the University of Bern

Applications to the DigiK

In 2024, the Digitalization Commission of the University of Bern announces calls for three funding lines: Profile Raising Projects, Preparatory Projects (for subsequent Network Projects), and Perspective Projects. Information on these three funding lines can be found in the following sections, each named accordingly:

Profile Raising Projects

Award Procedure and Call for Profile Raising Projects on the Topic "The Human Being in Digital Transformation”

In its Digitalization Strategy 2030, the University of Bern formulates the strategic goal of creating fundamental and applied knowledge on the guiding theme "Human in Digital Transformation" (MidT) and promoting the exchange of knowledge between internal and external researchers, critical reflection on research results, and sustainable knowledge transfer to society.

For implementation, the University Board has allocated funding of 20 million CHF for the years 2023–2027, with the funds to be awarded on the recommendation of the university's Digitalization Commission (DigiK) in four waves of 2–4 million CHF each for the promotion of four-year research projects to be launched in 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026.

Brief Description

Purpose

The procedure specified here concerns the application for funding for research projects with a strong potential for profiling the University of Bern on the guiding theme of its Digitalization Strategy 2030 "Human in Digital Transformation".

Eligibility

Eligible to apply are full-time researchers employed at the University of Bern with a remaining contract duration that covers at least the four-year project period.

Funding Amount

Funding can be requested for projects with a total volume of CHF 500,000, CHF 750,000 or CHF 1,000,000. If the application is successful, the first two project years are to be financed by funds provided by the University in the amount of CHF 250,000, CHF 375,000 or CHF 500,000, while for the last two project years, financing commitments of the same amount must be available from one or more faculties.

Submission Deadline

The deadline for submitting applications for funding of projects to be launched in the 1st quarter of 2025, but no later than July 2025, is September 20, 2024, 12 pm (noon).

Award Procedure

Information on the strategic framework, implementation, eligibility, review procedure, evaluation criteria, and other topics can be found in the description of the award procedure.

English: 2024_DigiK_ProfilingProjects_Call_eng.pdf
German: 2024_DigiK_Profilierungssprojekte_Call_ger.pdf

Application Form

In the 2024 call, applications can be submitted for funding of profile raising projects that will start no later than July 2025 (preferably already during the 1st quarter of 2025) and have a duration of four years from that point.

English: 2024_DigiK_ProfilingProjects_Application_eng.docx
German: 2024_DigiK_Profilierungssprojekte_Antrag_ger.docx

Submissions of funding applications must be sent electronically as PDF attachments by email by the deadline of Friday, September 20, 2024, 12:00 pm (noon), to the Head of the Digitalization Office of the University and Executive Secretary of DigiK, Dr. Sascha Tayefeh: fs-digitalisierung@unibe.ch

Further Obligations

By accepting the project funds, the funded individuals commit to:

Submitting a generally understandable summary and maintaining a project tile on the designated university website during the project period,
Presenting the respective project on a designated university website and/or at a university event upon invitation of DigiK,
Submitting an interim content and financial report no later than 3 months after the end of the second project year, and
Submitting a final content and financial report no later than 3 months after the end of the project.

Any unused project funds must be returned after the end of the project.

Evaluation

For the 2024 call, a three-stage (peer) review procedure will be carried out, comprising the following steps:

Content and faculty strategy pre-evaluation of the proposals including the matching decision at the faculty level, with detailed specification of the procedure by the respective faculty, preferably involving a faculty selection committee and possibly also requesting external reviews.
Evaluation of the proposals by the Research Commission with regard to scientific quality, separately according to the criteria of qualification of the applicant(s), innovativeness and novelty of the project idea, quality of the research plan, suitability of the (research) methodology, feasibility of the project work, and expected leverage effect of project realization.
Ranking of the proposals by the voting members of DigiK based on the Research Commission's evaluations as well as additional consideration of strategic criteria – particularly regarding the MidT profiling potential of the proposal for the University. In cases of doubt, external reviews will be included, and the ultimately fundable proposals will be forwarded to the University Board.

Preparatory Projects for Network Proposals

Award Procedure and Call for Preparatory Projects for Network Proposals

After evaluating the previous funding measures of DigiK in the form of profiling and perspective projects in research as well as teaching-related projects and the funds invested so far, the Executive Board of the University of Bern decided to launch an additional funding line for establishing larger innovative network structures within the university following a suggestion of the DigiK. These should be designed to be sustainable, interfaculty and integrative, promote synergies between existing research units and centers, and have the potential to establish a novel research association/center and/or to apply for an NCCR or comparable research focus areas. To explore these potentials and underscore the cross-faculty nature, this funding line does not require matching funds from faculties. Instead, applicants are obliged to submit a third-party funding proposal of a comparable amount to the funding sum during the first half of the funding period. If this is not approved, the applicants are obliged to resubmit the third-party funding proposal promptly.

For preparatory projects funded with max. 100’000 CHF for a year, ca. 1’ 000,000 CHF are available in 2024 and 2025, and for resulting network proposals funded with 2’000’000 to 3’000’000 CHF for 4 years, ca. 6’000,000 CHF are available in 2025 and 2026.

Brief Description

Purpose

The procedure specified here concerns the application for funding to prepare network proposals that are intended to serve the national and international profiling of the University of Bern within the framework of its Digitalization Strategy 2030.

Eligibility

Eligible to apply for preparatory projects and larger network projects are full-time researchers employed at the University of Bern with a contract duration of at least 1+4 = 5 years from the start of funding, and whose research component allows for a correspondingly high level of commitment. Both applications for preparatory projects and for the subsequent network projects must be submitted by at least 4 applicants from at least 2 different faculties, each with significant commitment and financial share.

Funding Amount

For preparatory projects, funding of up to CHF 100,000 can be requested for a duration of one year.

Submission Deadline

The deadline for submitting applications for funding of preparatory projects, which must start no later than January 2025, is September 20, 2024, 12pm (noon).

Award Procedure

Information on the strategic framework, implementation, eligibility, review procedure, evaluation criteria, and other topics can be found in the description of the award procedure.

English: 2024_DigiK_PreparatoryProjekte_Call_eng.pdf
German: 2024_DigiK_Vorbereitungsprojekte_Call_ger.pdf

Application Form

In the 2024 call, applications can be submitted for funding of preparatory projects that will start no later than January 2025 and have a duration of one year.

English: 2024_DigiK_ProfilingProjects_Application_eng.docx
German: 2024_DigiK_Vorbereitungsprojekte_Antrag_ger.docx

Evaluation

In the 2024 call for preparatory projects, the DigiK will evaluate the submitted proposals based on the following criteria, which also determine the structure of the content section of the proposal:

Potential for enhancing the University of Bern’s research profile with regard to the Digitalization Strategy 2030 and other strategic goals;
Innovativeness, interdisciplinarity and sustainability of the project idea;
Qualification of the applicants in terms of research and implementation of the project idea;
Potential for synergies with existing research units and centers from different faculties, concretized in a research program that addresses an overarching research goal to be achieved through cooperation and close interweaving of the research of the participating groups;
Impact on junior researcher training at various levels;
Feasibility of the project idea within the University of Bern;

Applications for network projects will be evaluated in a multi-stage process in cooperation with the Research Commission and involving external reviews. In addition, they will undergo an interim evaluation after two years.

Perspective Projects for the Mittelbau

Another funding line concerns projects that can be applied for at the "Focus Group Mid-Level Faculty Forum". This group represents the digitalization-related interests of the mid-level faculty at the University of Bern. Its core tasks include the annual announcement and evaluation of perspective projects on behalf of the Digitalization Commission, as well as promoting networking of mid-level faculty on digitalization issues.

Procedural descriptions and applications can be found at the following link:

Implementation: Focus group Forum Mittelbau - Digitalization at the University of Bern (unibe.ch)