EPFL AI Center and Swiss AI Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 | Fully Funded Guide
EPFL AI Center Postdoctoral Fellowship 2026: a fully funded, two-year AI research fellowship at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, open to every nationality. You receive the full EPFL postdoc salary; the fellowship funds about half, your host lab the rest, plus up to CHF 5,000 a year for research and travel. You need a PhD in an AI-relevant field awarded within two years of the deadline, or final-year PhD status, and two EPFL host professors behind your project. Applications close 9 November 2026 at 5:00 PM CET: 11:00 AM US Eastern, 8:00 AM US Pacific, 9:00 PM Pakistan time.
EPFL is one of Europe’s leading technical universities, and its AI Center is the network that connects more than 100 affiliated faculty members working on artificial intelligence. This fellowship is built around that network. Instead of joining a single group, you propose a project that runs across at least two AI Center labs, keep broad freedom over your research agenda, and work alongside the Center’s seminars, strategic initiatives, and community events.
I checked the EPFL Research Office call page, the AI Center fellowship pages, EPFL’s news release, and the official submission site on 2 November 2026. This guide separates what those pages actually state from what they leave open, including the selection timeline, which nobody has published. The time-zone table, the two-host strategy, and the country sections below exist because the official pages do not spell those parts out for international applicants.
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| The third call for the EPFL AI Center and Swiss AI Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowships: two years of fully funded AI research in Lausanne |
Quick facts at a glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Programme | EPFL AI Center and Swiss AI Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowships, 3rd call |
| Provider | EPFL AI Center, Lausanne, Switzerland, supported in part through funding from the Swiss AI Initiative |
| Award type | Postdoctoral research fellowship, fully funded salary plus a yearly research allowance |
| Duration | Maximum of two years |
| Salary | EPFL postdoc scale; the fellowship covers about 50% per year, and the host lab covers the rest. The 2026 scale starts at CHF 88,000 gross for year one, including the 13th salary month |
| Research allowance | Up to CHF 5,000 per fellowship year for research costs, open research data, open access publication, travel, and conferences |
| Host requirement | Support of two EPFL host professors affiliated with the AI Center, agreed before you submit |
| Research base | An interdisciplinary agenda across at least two EPFL laboratories |
| Nationality and age | Citizens of any nationality may apply; no age restrictions apply |
| Academic window | PhD in computer science, physics, engineering, applied mathematics, or another AI-relevant field, awarded no more than two years before the deadline; final-year PhD students are eligible |
| Language | All documents submitted in English; no English test score is requested on any call page |
| Application limit | One application per applicant |
| Application fee | No fee is listed anywhere on the call pages or the submission site |
| Deadline | 9 November 2026, 5:00 PM CET, 11:00 AM US Eastern, 8:00 AM US Pacific, 9:00 PM Pakistan time |
| Result date | Not published by EPFL |
9 November 2026 at 5:00 PM CET (Central European Time, UTC+1) , that is 4:00 PM GMT, 11:00 AM US Eastern time, 8:00 AM US Pacific time, and 9:00 PM Pakistan time, all on 9 November. The official pages publish no grace period after the closing minute, so plan to press submit on 7 November and keep your confirmation.
- Overview
- Who Can Apply
- How Winners Are Selected
- Funding and Benefits
- Required Documents
- English Language Requirements
- Costs You Should Budget
- Application Procedure
- Deadlines and Time Zones
- Residence Permit or Visa
- For Pakistani Applicants
- For US Applicants
- For Other International Applicants
- After You Receive an Offer
- Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Scholarship Scam Warning Signs
- How to Apply Safely
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Words
- Official Links
- Read More
Overview
The EPFL AI Center is the hub for artificial intelligence research at EPFL, and this fellowship is one of its talent pipelines. EPFL announced the third call on 1 September 2026 with a closing date of 9 November 2026. The programme is framed around four goals: push cutting-edge AI research, take a critical look at ethical questions such as bias, privacy, and fairness, train the next generation of AI leaders, and connect researchers across the Center’s labs.
Two structural features make this fellowship different from a standard postdoctoral job. First, you build an interdisciplinary agenda that spans at least two EPFL laboratories headed by AI Center faculty, which means your project has to interest two groups, not one. Second, the funding is split: the fellowship pays about half of your annual salary, your host laboratory commits to the other half, and the lab also provides your office, equipment, and administrative support for the full period.
EPFL campus
A French-speaking Swiss city on Lake Geneva with one of Europe’s densest concentrations of AI research groups, English as the working language, and direct train links to Geneva’s airport.
The collaboration model
Your proposal must show how you will work with EPFL laboratories so that ideas and people move between groups and across faculties, instead of sitting inside a single office.
Freedom of agenda
Fellows receive wide latitude to develop their own research direction while contributing to the Center’s community activities and strategic initiatives.
Research areas and available subjects
The official submission site anchors every application to seven domains. Your project must sit inside them, and the table below maps the subject areas most applicants search for onto those official domains.
| Subject area | Official call domain it maps to |
|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence | AI Fundamentals |
| Machine Learning | AI Fundamentals |
| AI Algorithms and Methods | AI Fundamentals |
| AI Applications in Science and Technology | AI for Science, plus the sibling domains AI for Sustainability, AI for Robotics, AI for Health, and AI for Education |
| Responsible and Ethical AI | Responsible AI |
| AI Safety and Evaluation | Responsible AI |
| Interdisciplinary AI Research | Spans all seven domains; the proposal must involve at least two EPFL labs |
The seven official domains: Responsible AI, AI for Science, AI for Sustainability, AI for Robotics, AI Fundamentals, AI for Health, and AI for Education. The call also requires your research description to explain how potential societal impacts of AI will be considered and mitigated; that sentence belongs in your proposal, not in a footnote.
Who Can Apply
The eligibility rules are short, but two of them decide most applications: the two-year academic window and the two-host requirement. Everything else is permissive: any nationality, any age, any gender, any background.
The academic window
- PhD fields: computer science, physics, engineering, applied mathematics, or another field relevant to artificial intelligence.
- Timing: the PhD diploma must have been obtained no more than two years before the submission deadline. Measured against 9 November 2026, that means a diploma dated 9 November 2024 or later satisfies the rule as written, and the call guidelines in the toolkit confirm the exact format they expect.
- Final-year PhD students: you may apply while still enrolled, provided you complete the PhD before the fellowship starts. Since EPFL has not published the start date yet, get that confirmation from your hosts in writing.
- Track record: the programme states that scientific excellence is the primary criterion and that candidates are expected to carry excellent grade transcripts, so your full academic record is read closely. If your university uses a percentage or a GPA scale, our CGPA calculator converts it into a standard 4.0-scale figure you can quote consistently.
The two-host requirement
This is the step that filters out most people. Before you submit anything, you must have the support of two EPFL host professors who are faculty members affiliated with the EPFL AI Center. The official process is direct: you take your CV and a short abstract of your project to professors on the Center’s faculty list and discuss a potential collaboration with them. Their commitment only takes effect if the fellowship is granted, so a yes costs them little, but you still need two yeses before the portal closes.
Practical sequence: shortlist eight to ten professors whose groups fit your abstract, email them with the CV and abstract attached in the first half of October, follow up once after a week, and start the real project conversation with the two who respond. Professors on teaching-heavy schedules routinely take seven to ten days to reply, so a late approach would fail even if the deadline allowed it.
Priority, exclusions, and limits
- Priority to external candidates: EPFL gives priority to applicants from outside the institution, although senior PhD students and junior postdocs currently at EPFL remain eligible.
- One application only: you may submit a single application; there is no second submission and no corrected file after the deadline.
- No nationality or age limits: citizens of any nationality may apply, and no age restrictions apply; applications from all genders and backgrounds are actively encouraged.
- Excellence over volume: the programme calls itself highly competitive and measures academic records and professional accomplishments as the primary signal. Meeting every rule makes you readable, not ranked.
Note: eligibility and selection are separate games. The rules above decide whether your file is opened; the evaluation section below decides whether it wins.
How Winners Are Selected
Every application is reviewed by the programme’s Evaluation Committee, made up of experts in AI-related research, and EPFL may call in external reviews when a proposal needs specialist judgment. The committee scores each proposal against three published pillars.
- Scientific excellence: how well the project fits the call’s topics, the originality of the research objectives and plan, the quality of the chosen approach, and your demonstrated competence and experience in the field.
- Impact: the proposal’s relevance and practical effect for AI, plus the potential for real collaboration with EPFL research groups and interaction with the AI Center community.
- Feasibility: whether the resources, management, and organization can actually deliver the project across the fellowship period.
EPFL publishes no scoring weights, no number of awards, no applicant totals, and no decision date. Anyone quoting you an acceptance rate for this call is guessing, and I will not add one here. What is stated is that scientific excellence is the primary criterion, and that your transcripts are expected to be excellent.
What this means in practice: a proposal that is merely competent in all three pillars loses to one that is genuinely original in pillar one. Originality of the research objectives is the first sub-criterion EPFL lists, and it is the part of the file only you can write.
Funding and Benefits
The package has three layers: a full salary on the EPFL scale, a dedicated yearly research allowance, and lab infrastructure from your hosts. Here is what each one actually means in numbers.
Full EPFL postdoc scale
The fellowship contributes about 50% of your annual salary and your host laboratory covers the rest, so you receive the full scale salary. EPFL’s published 2026 postdoc scale starts at CHF 88,000 gross for year one, including a 13th salary month, rising CHF 1,500 per year subject to budget and economic conditions.
CHF 5,000 per year
A maximum of CHF 5,000 per fellowship year for research costs, open research data, open access publication charges, travel, and conferences. Every line must be justified in the budget and in the financial report.
Lab space and support
Host laboratories commit to the practical side: office space, laboratory space and equipment, and administrative support for the length of the fellowship.
AI Center network
Access to the Center’s seminars, strategic research initiatives, and community activities across a faculty of more than 100 affiliated professors, the part of the value that never appears in a budget line.
Costs beyond CHF 5,000 a year are the responsibility of your host professors, and the published funding lines say nothing about relocation, housing, health insurance, or dependants, so budget for those yourself before you count the salary as spendable. Social security follows EPFL Human Resources guidelines and practices, which apply from your contract.
Required Documents
The exact document list and the templates live in the application toolkit that EPFL links from the call page , open it before you build your file. The cards below cover what the call text itself demands, which is what the committee checks first.
If the written parts are your weak spot, remember that the short project abstract you send to professors does the same job as a motivation letter: persuade fast, in limited space. Our guide to writing a winning motivation letter covers the structure and opening lines that committees respond to.
Proof of PhD status
Your PhD diploma dated within the two-year window, or, if you are a final-year doctoral student, evidence that you will hold the degree before the fellowship starts. The toolkit specifies the exact format.
Academic record
Full transcripts and grades. The call expects excellent grade transcripts and scores your competence on that evidence, so send the complete record rather than a summary page.
Research proposal
Aligned to one of the seven domains, showing collaboration across at least two EPFL labs, and describing how potential societal impacts of AI will be considered and mitigated. Keep any written statement within its page limits; our motivation letter word counter tracks length while you draft.
Two host commitments
Written support from two AI Center faculty professors, agreed before submission on the basis of your CV and project abstract. The commitment applies only if the fellowship is granted.
Allowance budget
The CHF 5,000 research and travel line, justified in the budget. The same costs are checked again in the financial report during the fellowship.
English, one submission
Every document in English, uploaded together through the online submission platform, within your single permitted application.
All files must be uploaded by 9 November 2026, 5:00 PM CET, 11:00 AM US Eastern, 8:00 AM US Pacific, 9:00 PM Pakistan time. The official pages describe no late submission route and no second window in this round.
English Language Requirements
Neither the call page, the AI Center pages, the news release, nor the submission site asks for an IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, or Cambridge score; I checked all four on 2 November 2026. The rule that does exist is simple: all required documents must be submitted in English.
- No test certificate to book: nothing in this call requires you to upload a language score, so spend that time and money on the two-host search instead.
- English is judged in the writing: your proposal and correspondence are read by an international committee, and weak academic English costs you in the excellence pillar even without a test.
- Correspondence counts: the first email a professor receives from you is part of the file they judge you by, short, specific, error-free.
Note: if you need a language score for a different purpose later, a second application, a mobility programme, or a visa category that asks for one, our IELTS band score calculator converts practice-test marks into band scores instantly. For this fellowship, no test is requested.
Costs You Should Budget
The fellowship removes the salary problem, but a few cost groups still sit around the edges of a two-year move to Switzerland. The table separates what the programme pays from what stays with you.
| Cost item | Amount or responsibility |
|---|---|
| Application fee | No fee appears on the call pages or the submission site (checked 2 November 2026) |
| Salary | Full EPFL postdoc scale: CHF 88,000 gross in year one on the 2026 scale, including the 13th salary month; the fellowship funds about 50% and the host lab funds the rest |
| Annual increment | CHF 1,500 per year on the published scale, subject to budgetary resources and economic conditions |
| Research, data, publications, travel | Up to CHF 5,000 per fellowship year, justified in the budget and the financial report |
| Costs above CHF 5,000 | Covered by your host professors |
| Office, lab space, equipment, admin support | Provided by the host laboratories |
| Social security | Handled under EPFL Human Resources guidelines and practices |
| Housing, relocation, health insurance, dependants | Not listed among the published funding lines; budget for them yourself |
Every figure above is in Swiss francs because that is the currency EPFL pays in. I am deliberately not printing a dollar or rupee conversion: rates move weekly, and any number written today would be stale by the time you plan. Check a live rate on the day you build your budget, and price Lausanne housing against the city’s current listings, not against your home city’s.
One rule: the official route is EPFL’s own platform and the Research Office contact. If anyone asks you for money to apply, to be introduced to hosts, or to “fast-track” your file, stop and verify through research@epfl.ch.
Application Procedure
The flowchart below covers the full route from checking the academic window to starting the fellowship. The host search is the long pole; every other step fits around it, so start there.
PhD in computer science, physics, engineering, applied mathematics, or another AI-relevant field, dated no more than two years before 9 November 2026, or final-year PhD status with completion before the start. Any nationality, any age, one application only.
Work from the official AI Center faculty list. Email your CV and a short project abstract, and discuss the collaboration directly with each professor. Two supports are mandatory, and they only bind if the fellowship is granted.
Shape a proposal that fits one of the seven call domains, names both laboratories, and explains how the societal impacts of AI in your research will be considered and mitigated.
Follow the templates in the application toolkit: PhD proof or enrollment confirmation, full transcripts, the proposal, and the justified CHF 5,000 allowance budget.
The official submission site accepts a new account by email or through EPFL authentication. Register days ahead so a password reset never sits between you and the deadline.
Upload everything through EPFL’s online submission platform, check that each file opens, and keep the confirmation. Aim for 7 November; portals slow down in the final hours.
Experts in AI-related research score scientific excellence, impact, and feasibility, with external reviews where needed. No result date is published, and only one application per person exists.
Contract through EPFL Human Resources, permit paperwork, and then up to two years of research across two laboratories. The start date is agreed with your hosts; EPFL has not published one yet.
Deadlines and Time Zones
EPFL published three dates and left the rest open. The timeline below shows only what is official, so nothing on it is an estimate. The kit for this call is the deadline tracker you will see referenced throughout this guide.
Deadline in every time zone you might be reading from, all of it the same instant on 9 November 2026:
| Time zone | Local time |
|---|---|
| CET (Central European Time, Lausanne) | 5:00 PM, 9 November 2026 |
| GMT / UTC (London) | 4:00 PM, 9 November 2026 |
| US Eastern (New York) | 11:00 AM, 9 November 2026 |
| US Pacific (Los Angeles) | 8:00 AM, 9 November 2026 |
| Pakistan (Karachi) | 9:00 PM, 9 November 2026 |
When I visited the official submission site for this call on 2 November 2026, its homepage displayed a notice that the deadline for registering submissions has passed, while every other official page still states the call is open until 9 November 2026. Notices like this usually refer to an earlier registration round or a stale banner, but you should not spend a week guessing. Create your account today, confirm you can reach the EPFL AI Center application form inside it, and email research@epfl.ch if you cannot. Do not wait until 8 November to find out.
Residence Permit or Visa
Lausanne is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and Switzerland is not in the European Union, so the permit route differs from a postdoc move to Germany or the Netherlands. The rules below are the structure, not a substitute for EPFL Human Resources handling your file.
- Citizens of EU/EFTA countries: no visa is required before arrival; you register with the cantonal authority after arriving in Lausanne. Switzerland applies a registration procedure with a quota system for EU/EFTA workers whose assignment exceeds three months, so start this as soon as your contract is signed.
- Citizens of other countries, including Pakistan, India, Nigeria, and China: you need a residence permit approved before travel for a stay over 90 days. A fellowship contract from EPFL is the basis of that application; the process runs after you receive the offer, coordinated through EPFL Human Resources and the Canton of Vaud.
- What triggers it: the signed employment contract, proof of accommodation, and passport validity. Keep your passport valid well beyond the intended start, because renewals during a permit process cause avoidable delays.
- Timing: no published schedule exists for when a permit is issued. Treat it as a step that sits between your offer and your travel date, and do not book non-refundable flights until EPFL confirms the documents you need.
Language note: your working language at EPFL is English even though Lausanne is French-speaking. French helps with daily life, landlords, and cantonal paperwork, but nothing in this fellowship requires it in advance.
For Pakistani Applicants
Applicants holding a Pakistani degree follow the same call rules as everyone else; nationality creates no barrier, and EPFL states that citizens of any nationality may apply. Three points are worth planning around early.
- Your degree in EPFL’s eyes: a four-year bachelor’s degree followed by an MPhil or a PhD from a Pakistani university fits the profile the call describes. The two-year rule attaches to the PhD diploma date, so check the date printed on your degree before anything else, not the date of your defence.
- Getting to Lausanne: from Karachi or Lahore you would most often route through Istanbul, Doha, or Dubai into Geneva, which has direct rail and road links to Lausanne. Price the Geneva route rather than flying to Zurich, and check visa validity for any transit.
- Money while the permit processes: budget for two to three months of Lausanne living costs before your first salary arrives, because the permit and payroll both start after your contract does.
Sanity check: if your supervisor or a middleman mentions special treatment, read the scam signs section below first. The official route is your own application on EPFL’s platform, plus direct contact with professors.
For US Applicants
Applicants inside the United States, whether you are finishing a PhD at a US university or working as a postdoc, should plan the move around three logistics.
- Timing across two deadlines: the call closes at 5:00 PM CET, which lands at 11:00 AM Eastern and 8:00 AM Pacific on 9 November 2026. The hours are friendly compared with many European calls, but remember that US daylight saving time ends on 1 November 2026, a week before the deadline, while Switzerland switches on 25 October; the conversion above already accounts for both.
- Leaving a US appointment cleanly: if you are on a US visa tied to your current institution, your departure affects that status. Confirm the exit timing with your international office after the offer, not before.
- Cost of planning trips: if you arrange hosts by video call first, consider one Lausanne visit before you sign. Our flight booking guide covers how to price and structure a trip like this without overpaying for last-minute fares.
Swiss salaries are paid in francs, not dollars, and the exchange rate moves. Convert the CHF 88,000 year-one scale on the day you compare offers rather than trusting a figure you saw in a news article.
For Other International Applicants
Outside the two groups above, the process is the same, and only the permit route and the certificate paperwork change. Use this as a pre-flight checklist.
- Degree documents: gather transcripts, the PhD diploma, and any attested copies the call toolkit asks for, in English, weeks ahead. The call requires all documents in English and runs one submission only.
- Reference context: international applicants are judged on the same three pillars, so give your hosts enough context to describe your work accurately rather than letting them infer it from a title.
- Permit category: EU/EFTA applicants register after arrival under the quota system; non-EU applicants apply for a residence permit before travel, in both cases with EPFL Human Resources involved.
- Health insurance: Swiss health insurance becomes compulsory after taking up residence, usually within three months of arrival. Budget for it separately; it is not one of the published funding lines.
Note: this guide is written for the 2026 third call. Rules such as the two-year window and the CHF 5,000 allowance are reprinted each round from the then-current guidelines, so re-read the official pages before you reuse this checklist next year.
After You Receive an Offer
If the Evaluation Committee selects you, the sequence from offer to start is administrative rather than academic, and most of it runs through EPFL rather than the AI Center.
- Contract through EPFL HR: your employment contract follows EPFL Human Resources guidelines and practices, and social security is set up under the same rules.
- Permit paperwork: Human Resources supports the residence permit application; EU/EFTA candidates register in the Canton of Vaud after arrival; other nationals need approval before travelling.
- Confirm the start date: the call has not published one, so settle it in writing with both hosts when you accept.
- Arrival logistics: accommodation in Lausanne, health insurance registration within three months, and bank account setup. These sit with you, not the fellowship.
Before you sign anything: verify the contract length against the two-year maximum and confirm in writing which lab covers costs above the CHF 5,000 research allowance. The call says those costs belong to your host professors, and an offer letter that contradicts the call should be resolved before you resign a position elsewhere.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The failure points in this call are predictable because the process itself creates them.
- Starting the host search in November: two professor commitments take weeks of correspondence. Applications opened 1 September 2026; approaching hosts in the final fortnight is the single most common way to miss this deadline.
- Letting hosts drift: keep the conversation active after their first yes, and do not submit until both commitments are confirmed in writing.
- Ignoring the two-year rule: the diploma must be dated no more than two years before 9 November 2026. Calculate against the printed diploma date, not your defence or convocation.
- Proposal that fits one lab: the call requires an interdisciplinary agenda across at least two EPFL laboratories. A single-group project reads as non-compliant before it is ever scored.
- Forgetting the societal-impact sentence: the call requires you to explain how potential societal impacts of AI will be considered and mitigated. Missing it leaves an explicit requirement unaddressed.
- Weak budget justification: the CHF 5,000 line is checked again in the financial report. Vague items undermine the feasibility pillar.
- Leaving the portal for the last hour: the closing minute is 5:00 PM CET with no published grace period. Upload by 7 November and keep your confirmation.
- Submitting twice: only one application is allowed. A duplicate creates a compliance question you cannot easily explain.
The largest avoidable error is treating the host search as a formality. On this call, two EPFL AI Center professors are a prerequisite, not a detail, and the committee’s first question about your feasibility pillar is whether that collaboration is real.
Scholarship Scam Warning Signs
Fully funded fellowships attract fraud because the money is real. The pattern below shows up every cycle.
- Payment requests: no application fee appears anywhere on this call’s official pages or its submission site. Any demand for money to apply, to be introduced to hosts, or to “fast-track” your file is fraud.
- Guaranteed selection: the committee may bring in external reviewers and publishes no acceptance rate. Nobody can guarantee you a place.
- Impersonated domains: the only submission site for this call is hosted on the EPFL domain. Links arriving by email or messaging apps deserve a check against the official links at the end of this guide.
- Paid intermediaries: “official agent” packages and agents who claim a professor relationship are not part of EPFL’s process. You contact hosts yourself, using your CV and abstract.
- Personal data harvested early: passport scans and bank details belong to the contract and permit stage, long after selection. Never send them to reach a shortlist.
If a message asks you to pay, or to send your passport before an offer exists, treat it as fraudulent and report it. Verify through research@epfl.ch at EPFL’s Research Office, Av. Auguste-Piccard 1, CH-1015 Lausanne, rather than replying to the message itself.
How to Apply Safely
Applying safely for this fellowship comes down to four habits.
- Start from the official page: follow the Research Office call page from EPFL’s own site to the submission platform. Never follow a deadline link from a social media post.
- Create your account early: register on the submission site as soon as you decide to apply, and confirm you can reach the application form. Given the banner we saw on 2 November 2026, this check matters more than usual.
- Correspond only with EPFL addresses: host professors and staff communicate from epfl.ch addresses. Message-app approaches from “programme officers” are not how this call works.
- Verify before you share anything: when in doubt, write to research@epfl.ch directly. A five-minute verification is cheaper than a stolen identity.
The safe sequence in one line: official call page → your own EPFL-host search → documents from the toolkit → single submission before 5:00 PM CET on 9 November 2026 → confirmation kept.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the EPFL AI Center Postdoctoral Fellowship fully funded?
Yes, as a salary package. You receive the full EPFL postdoc scale salary , CHF 88,000 gross for year one on the 2026 scale, including the 13th salary month , with the fellowship covering about 50% per year and your host laboratory covering the rest, plus up to CHF 5,000 a year for research, publications, travel, and conferences. Costs beyond that allowance rest with your hosts, and relocation, housing, and insurance are not among the published funding lines.
Who is eligible to apply?
Researchers of any nationality and any age who hold a PhD in computer science, physics, engineering, applied mathematics, or another AI-relevant field, awarded no more than two years before the deadline , so a diploma dated 9 November 2024 or later for this call. Final-year PhD students may apply if they complete the degree before the start, provided they secure two EPFL AI Center host professors and submit one application only. EPFL gives priority to external candidates while remaining open to its own senior PhD students and junior postdocs.
What is the application deadline in US time?
The deadline is 9 November 2026 at 5:00 PM CET, which is 11:00 AM US Eastern time and 8:00 AM US Pacific time on the same day, 9 November. The conversion already accounts for the fact that Swiss daylight saving time ends on 25 October 2026 while US daylight saving time ends on 1 November 2026.
Do I need an English language test score?
No English test score is requested anywhere in this call. None of the official pages , the Research Office call page, the AI Center fellowship pages, the EPFL news release, or the submission site , asks for IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, or a Cambridge score. The requirement that does apply is that all documents must be submitted in English.
Do I need two EPFL host professors?
Yes, two, and it is the strictest part of the process. Both must be EPFL faculty affiliated with the AI Center, and you agree the collaboration with them beforehand by sending your CV and a short project abstract; their commitment only becomes binding if the fellowship is granted. Without two supports in place before 9 November 2026 at 5:00 PM CET, your application cannot be submitted.
Final Words
This call rewards people who start early with other people. The rules are simple , a recent PhD, any nationality, English documents, one submission, but the two-host requirement and the two-lab proposal mean the work begins in September, not in the first week of November. If you secure your professors now, your proposal has six weeks to become specific, and specificity is what the excellence pillar scores.
Everything in this guide was checked against EPFL’s own pages on 2 November 2026, and everything those pages do not yet say- the result date, the start date, the selection weights- I have left empty rather than filled with guesses. Send corrections to research@epfl.ch first and tell me second; this page will be updated when the official facts move.
- Deadline: 9 November 2026, 5:00 PM CET, 11:00 AM US Eastern, 8:00 AM US Pacific, 9:00 PM Pakistan time.
- Funding: full EPFL postdoc salary (about 50% from the fellowship, 50% from your hosts) plus CHF 5,000 a year for research.
- Eligibility: PhD within two years of the deadline, or final-year PhD; any nationality; any age.
- Prerequisite: two EPFL AI Center host professors, agreed before you submit.
- Documents: all in English, one application, no fee, no English test score.
Was this guide useful? Share it with a colleague who is also applying to European fellowships this cycle; the host-search timeline is the part people miss until it is too late.
- EPFL Research Office, AI Center and Swiss AI Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowships call page, toolkit, guidelines, and eligibility criteria (deadline, documents, two-host requirement, evaluation criteria, domains).
- EPFL AI Center, postdoctoral fellowship pages (faculty affiliation requirement, interdisciplinary agenda, community activities, priority to external candidates).
- EPFL News, announcement of the third call, 1 September 2026 (call opening, closing date, funding model, strategic goals).
- EPFL postdoc salary scale 2026 (CHF 88,000 year-one gross including 13th month, CHF 1,500 annual increment).
- Official submission site: aic-reo-call.epfl.ch (account registration options, seven research domains, registration-banner observation).
- EPFL Research Office contact details: research@epfl.ch, Av. Auguste-Piccard 1, CH-1015 Lausanne.
Ready to apply?
Open the official call pages, start your host search this week, and register on the submission site today.
Visit EPFL AI Center Visit EPFLThis guide reflects EPFL’s published call pages as verified on 2 November 2026. Scholarship rules change between rounds: always confirm every detail on the official EPFL pages before submitting, and use this article as your structured preparation checklist rather than as a substitute for the official guidelines.
Published 23 October 2026 · Last verified 2 November 2026 · Study Abroad With Arbaz
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