Digitalization at the University of Bern

Applications to the DigiK

In 2025, the Digitization Commission of the University of Bern announces calls for five funding lines: Profile Raising Projects, Preparatory Projects (for subsequent Network Projects), Network Projects Perspective Projects and UniBE Digital Venture Fellowship. Information on these five 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 (a) creating basic and applied knowledge on the lead topic "The Human Being in Digital Transformation" (“Mensch in digitaler Transformation”, MidT) and (b) promoting knowledge exchange between internal and external researchers, critical reflection of research results, and sustainable knowledge transfer to society (Goal 2.2). The derived field of action concerns "digitalization-related research activities that are to be promoted at the university level if they have a direct connection to the lead topic of the university's digitalization strategy. In particular, projects focusing on the human being in the digital transformation process or the development of digital tools that support them in coping with existing challenges, be it in professional, everyday life or in university research, teaching, administration, or service." (sphere of activity 3.4).

To implement the objective formulated in (1), the University Executive Board (UL) has allocated funding of CHF 20 million for the years 2023–2027. Of this amount, CHF 17 million is designated for the support of MidT profile rising projects and other funding lines. The allocation of funds for MidT profile rising projects is to be carried out in four waves of CHF 2–3 million each, based on proposals from the University Digitalization Commission (DigiK), to support four-year research projects starting in 2023, 2024, 2025, or 2026. Due to the establishment of the new network projects funding line for 2025 and 2026 (including preparatory projects for 2024 and 2025), approximately CHF 2 million will be available in 2025 for the support of MidT profile rising projects.

The remaining 3 million CHF (as of 12/2022) is intended for addressing research assignments formulated by the DigiK focus group "Digitale Lehre" (with representatives from VRL, ZUW, HD, iLUB, SUB), financing MidT-related events, and promoting perspective projects of the academic middle class. Implementation provisions for these measures, including descriptions of any necessary application procedures, were developed for the FS 2023.

The previously defined fund allocation and details of the application procedure specified here for the funding of MidT profile rising projects have been and will be subject to ongoing critical reviews with the consequence of any necessary adjustments. In case of a positive final evaluation, it is planned to examine the continuation of the measures beyond 2026.

Brief Description

Purpose

The procedure specified here concerns the application for funding for research projects with significant potential to strengthen the University of Bern's profile in line with its 2030 Digitalization Strategy, "The Human Being in Digital Transformation."

Eligibility

Eligibility for applying for funding to support profile rising projects is limited to members of the University of Bern who have a research component in their full-time employment and a contract duration that either already covers or is expected to cover, as part of a tenure procedure, the full four-year duration of the proposed project.

Applicants with fixed-term contracts are required to submit a written confirmation from their supervising institution stating that their employment will last for at least four years from the project start date.

Applications for funding for the first two years of a project can be submitted either by individuals or by groups of researchers. However, such applications must include a commitment from one or more faculties to finance the final two years of the project.

Researchers affiliated with research centers must submit their (potentially partial) applications through their disciplinary faculties rather than their administrative faculties.

Funding Amount

Funding can be requested for the implementation of 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 with university funds amounting to 250’000 CHF, 375’000 CHF, or 500’000 CHF, while financial commitments of the same amount must be provided by a faculty or several faculties for the last two project years.

Submission Deadline

The deadline for submitting applications for the funding of projects intended to start in the first quarter of 2026, but no later than July 2026, is September 19, 2025, at 12:00 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.

Application Form

Projects positively assessed by the DigiK and decided upon by the UL must start no later than July of the following year (for the 2025 application wave, this means no later than July 2026) and must be completed within four years from that point. In the case of using the granted funds for financing doctorate positions, the successful completion of the project-related doctoral degree(s) should also be aimed for during the project duration.

Submissions of funding applications must be sent electronically in PDF format as an email attachment by the deadline of Friday, September 19, 2025, 12:00 noon, to the Head of the Digitalization Office of the University of Bern and Managing Director of DigiK, Dr. Sascha Tayefeh: fs-digitalisierung@unibe.ch

Further Obligations

By accepting the project funds, the supported individuals also commit to:

presenting their respective projects as part of “Digitization Days” held during the project period,
submitting a generally understandable summary and maintaining a project tile on the designated university website during the project duration,
submitting a content and financial progress report no later than 3 months after the end of the second project year, and
submitting a content and financial final report no later than 3 months after the end of the project.

In the event of missing presentations or reports, the DigiK reserves the right to recommend to the UL the suspension of project financing or even the reclaiming of transferred funds.

Evaluation

For the application wave of 2025, a three-stage (peer) review process will be carried out - following coordination with the University Executive Board (UL) and all faculties - comprising the following stages:

content and faculty strategic pre-assessment of applications, including matching fund decision at the faculty level, with a detailed specification of the procedure by the respective faculty, preferably involving a faculty selection committee and, if necessary, requesting external expert opinions,
assessment of applications by the Research Commission with regard to scientific quality, separated by the criteria of qualification of the applicant(s), innovation and novelty of the project idea, quality of the research plan, suitability of the (research) methodology, feasibility of project work, and expected leverage effect of project implementation, each with 0-3 points (with 0 = to be rejected for formal reasons; 1 = significant weaknesses; 2 = good; 3 = very good), and transmission of the respective detailed evaluations and the resulting unrounded average as the overall score to the DigiK,
ranking of applications by the voting members of the DigiK based on the evaluations of the Research Commission and additional consideration of strategic criteria - particularly with regard to the MidT profile rising potential of the application for the university - in cases of doubt, involving (external) expert opinions and forwarding the final recommended funding applications to the UL.

Preparatory Projects for Network Proposals

Award Procedure and Call for Preparatory Projects for Network Proposals

In addition to DigiK's previous funding measures in the form of profile raising projects and perspective projects in research as well as teaching-related projects and the funds invested to date, DigiK launched an additional funding line in the last Call 2024 to establish larger innovative network structures within the University of Bern as part of its Digitalization Strategy 2030. These should be sustainable, interfaculty and integrative, promote synergies between existing research units and centers and, if possible, have the potential to establish a new type of research network/center and/or to apply for an NCCR or comparable research focus. A network project is intended to create a basis at the level of digitalization research that will give UniBE a locational advantage in the long term and beyond the project and attract excellence. Particular emphasis is placed on this aspect of sustainability. In order to explore this potential and to emphasize the fact that it transcends faculty boundaries, no matching funds are required from faculties in this funding line, but applicants are obliged to submit an application for third-party funding during the first half of the funding period in a comparable amount to the funding amount. If this is not approved, applicants are obliged to resubmit the third-party funding application in a timely manner.
The new focus of this funding line is also intended to emphasize that the complexity of today's pressing research topics in the field of digital transformation and its global, national and individual effects requires the cooperation of a wide range of disciplines. It is also intended to encourage the use of the overall university framework in Bern to combine, for example, technical and natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and humanities, economics and law, medicine and ethics in innovative combinations. The required offer of three new, ideally interdisciplinary courses related to the project is intended to guarantee that this interdisciplinary approach has an impact on teaching.

For the allocation of preparatory projects, 500’000 CHF is available per call in 2024 and 2025, and for network proposals, 3’000’000 CHF is available per call in 2025 and 2026.

Brief Description

Purpose

The procedure specified here concerns the application for funding preparatory projects for network proposals that are intended to enhance the national and international profile of the University of Bern within the framework of its Digitization Strategy 2030.

Eligibility

Eligible to apply for funding for preparatory projects and subsequent network projects are members of the University of Bern with a research component in their full-time employment and with an existing or planned contract term in the course of a tenure procedure that covers at least the 1+4 = 5-year funding period of the preparatory project together with the mandatory subsequent network proposal.

Applicants with a fixed-term contract are required to enclose written confirmation from their supervisor that they will be employed for at least 5 years from the start of the project Applications for both preparatory projects and the subsequent network projects must be submitted by at least 4 applicants from at least 2 different faculties, each with a significant commitment and financial contribution.

Funding Amount

For preparatory projects, funding of up to 100’000 CHF can be applied for a duration of about 9 months.

Submission Deadline

The deadline for the submission of applications for the financing of preparatory projects, which must be taken up by January 2026 at the latest, is 19.09.2025, 12 noon.

The second call for network proposals is planned for spring 2026 with a submission deadline of 18.09.2026.

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.

Application Form

Projects positively evaluated by DigiK and approved by the University Executive Board must commence no later than January of the following year (in the 2025 call: no later than 1st of January 2026) and must be completed until the deadline in September 2026.

Submissions of funding applications must be sent electronically in PDF format by e-mail attachment by the deadline of Friday, 19 September 2025, 12:00 noon, to the Head of the University's Digitization Office and Managing Director of DigiK, Dr. Sascha Tayefeh: fs-digitalisierung@unibe.ch

Evaluation

In the 2025 application wave for preparatory projects, DigiK evaluates the submitted applications with regard to the following criteria, which also determine the structure of the content section of the application:

Novelty of the project idea and the overarching research objective compared to the state of (inter)national research;
Synergy potential for existing research units and centers from different faculties, concretized in a research program that addresses an overarching research goal, which is achieved through cooperation and close integration of the research work of the participating groups;
Profiling potential for the University of Bern in research in relation to the Digitalization Strategy 2030 and other strategic goals;
The importance of interdisciplinarity for achieving the project objectives and the adequacy of the cooperation between the participating groups to achieve this interdisciplinarity;
Sustainability of the network project in the sense of a long-term locational advantage for UniBE that extends beyond the project and attracts excellence;
Qualification of the applicants in terms of research and implementation of the project idea;
Impact on the training of young academics at various levels;
Feasibility of the project during the funding period, demonstrated by project milestones, research content and a related financial plan.

Each voting member evaluates every proposal for which there is no conflict of interest, awarding 0-3 points each (with 0 = to be rejected for formal reasons; 1 = significant weaknesses; 2 = good; 3 = very good). The overall score of a proposal is the unrounded mean resulting from all evaluations.
The resulting ranking of the proposals forms the basis for DigiK's recommendation of the preparatory project proposals deemed worthy of funding to the University Executive Board.
Applications for network projects are evaluated in a multi-stage process in cooperation with the Research Commission and involving external reviews. In addition, they undergo an interim evaluation after two years.

Network Projects

Award Procedure and Call for Network Projects

In addition to DigiK's previous funding measures in the form of profile raising and perspec-tive projects in research as well as teaching-related projects and the funds invested to date, DigiK launched an additional funding line in the last Call 2024 to establish larger innovative network structures within the University of Bern as part of its Digitalization Strategy 2030. These should be sustainable, interfaculty and integrative, promote synergies between exist-ing research units and centers and have the best possible potential to establish a new type of research network/center and/or to apply for an NCCR or comparable research focus. With a network project, a basis is to be created at the level of digitization research that will result in a long-term locational advantage for UniBE beyond the project and attract excellence. Particular emphasis is placed on this aspect of sustainability. In order to sound these poten-tials and to emphasize the character that transcends faculty boundaries, no matching funds are required from faculties in this funding line, but applicants are obliged to submit an appli-cation for third-party funding during the first half of the funding period in a comparable amount to the funding amount. If this is not approved, applicants are obliged to resubmit the third-party funding application in a timely manner.
The new alignment of this funding line is also intended to emphasize that the complexity of today's pressing research topics in the field of digital transformation and its global, national and individual effects requires the cooperation of a wide range of disciplines. It should also encourage the use of the overall university framework in Bern to combine aspects of, for ex-ample, technical and natural sciences, humanities, social sciences and humanities, econom-ics and law, medicine and ethics in innovative combinations. The required offer of three new, ideally interdisciplinary courses related to the project is intended to guarantee that this inter-disciplinary approach has an impact on teaching.

CHF 3,000,000 is available per call in 2025 and 2026 for the allocation of funding for network proposals.

Brief Description

Purpose

The procedure specified here concerns the application for funding network projects that are intended to enhance the national and international profile of the University of Bern within the framework of its Digitization Strategy 2030.

Eligibility

Eligible to apply for funding for network projects are members of the University of Bern with a research component in their full-time employment and with an existing contract term or a contract term planned in the course of a tenure procedure that covers at least the 4-year funding period of the network proposal.

Applicants with a fixed-term contract must enclose written confirmation from their superior that they will be employed for at least 4 years from the start of the project.

Applications for network projects must be submitted by at least 4 applicants from at least 2 different faculties, each with a significant commitment and financial contribution.

Funding Amount

Funding of CHF 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 for 4 years can be requested for network projects.

Submission Deadline

The respective deadline for submitting the application for a network project is 19.09.2025 or 18.09.2026, whereby the project must be started by the following July at the latest.

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.

Application Form

Positively assessed network projects by DigiK and approved by UL must commence no later than July of the following year (for the 2025 application wave, no later than July 2026) and must be completed within four years from that point. In the case of allocated funds being used to finance doctorates, the successful completion of the project-related doctorate(s) should also be pursued within the project duration.

The funding applications must be submitted electronically in PDF format as an email attach-ment by the deadline of Friday, September 19, 2025, at 12:00 noon, to the Head of the Digitalization Office of the University and Managing Director of DigiK, Dr. Sascha Tayefeh: fs-digitalisierung@unibe.ch

Evaluation

In the 2025 application wave for network projects, DigiK evaluates the submitted applications with regard to the following criteria, which also determine the structure of the content section of the application:

novelty of the project idea and the overarching research objective compared to the state of (inter)national research;
Synergy potential for existing research units and centers from different faculties, con-cretized in a research program that addresses an overarching research goal, which is achieved through cooperation and close integration of the research work of the par-ticipating groups;
profiling potential for the University of Bern in research in relation to the Digitalization Strategy 2030 and other strategic goals;
Importance of interdisciplinarity for achieving the project objectives and adequacy of the cooperation between the groups involved to achieve this interdisciplinarity;
Sustainability of the network project in the sense of a long-term locational advantage for UniBE that extends beyond the project and attracts excellence;
qualification of the applicant with regard to research and implementation of the pro-ject idea;
impact on the training of young academics at various levels;
feasibility of the project during the funding period, outlined by project milestones, re-search content and a related financial plan.

Applications for network projects are evaluated in a multi-stage process in collaboration with the Research Commission and with the involvement of external experts. The external expert opinions comment on the evaluation criteria in Section 1 and, if applica-ble, Sections 6 and 8.
Each voting member of DigiK gives a final score of 0-3 points (0 = to be rejected for formal reasons; 1 = clear weaknesses; 2 = good; 3 = very good) to each application for which there is no conflict of interest. The overall score of an application is the resulting unrounded aver-age of all evaluations. The resulting ranking of the applications forms the basis for the recommendation to Univer-sity Executive Board (UL) of the applications for network projects that DigiK deems worthy of funding.
In addition, the network projects are subject to 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)

UniBE Digital Venture Fellowship

The UniBE Digital Venture Fellowship Program supports researchers from all disciplines with up to CHF 100’000 to take the first entrepreneurial steps and turn their scientific findings into innovative, digitalization-related products or services. During the one-year Fellowship, the Fellows will be coached and connected by the Innovation Office to resources and networks necessary to bring your innovation to the market and society.

The call for proposal will be published on 19 March 2025 here as well as on this website. If you are interested, please contact us at innovationoffice@unibe.ch or sign up for our monthly newsletter. For further information on support offers of the University of Bern for innovation, entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer, have a look at our website www.unibe.ch/innovation.

UniBE Digital Venture Fellowships: Funding of 4 fellowships - 2 each in 2025 and 2026 in the amount of CHF 100,000, (plus CHF 6,000 for additional costs)
These UniBE Digital Venture Fellowships complement the existing UniBE Venture Fellowships
Application to the Innovation Office, more information on this call will be available shortly on https://www.unibe.ch/research/funding_and_prizes/unibe_funding_schemes/venture_fellowship/index_eng.html