Filling the Gap

Filling the Gap is a career development program that supports talented and motivated Clinician Scientists for a period of 2 years. Filling the Gap enables physicians and dentists to advance their research, and thus specifically fosters their academic career.

The program is built on 3 pillars:

• Financial support: Protected research time ranging from 20% to 50% over a period of 18 to 24 months.

• Planning: Individual career planning with the department chair.

• Mentoring: A mentor supports and supervises the applicant’s career

Filling the Gap is based on the University of Zurich's Equal Opportunity Action Plan 2013-2016. The program aims to increase the number of female professors and women in academic governing bodies. Therefore, the share of women among the grantees will be at least 50% per funding period. Filling the Gap particularly funds protected research time for clinician scientists, who conduct basic, clinical and/or data-driven research and have limited opportunities for research due to their professional situation and/or care obligations, thereby supporting their academic career.

The documents below list all people who have received funding for the periods 2024–2025 and 2026–2027.

New grants 2024-2025 (PDF, 151 KB) Prolongations 2024 (PDF, 135 KB)
New grants 2026-2027 (PDF, 99 KB) Prolongations 2026 (PDF, 127 KB)

We congratulate the funded clinician scientists and wish them every success and enthusiasm for their respective research projects!

The next call for proposals for the 2028-2029 funding period will take place at the beginning of 2027. Exact dates will be communicated in due course.

The application is submitted via Medtool (link follows). 

1. Eligible to apply are clinically active physicians, dentists and chiropractors with employment at
   • one of the University Hospitals
   • a partner hospital of the UZH List of hospitals
   • the Center for Dental Medicine
   • a clinic or institute of the UZH with clinical activities  List of clinics
2. Applicants must have a doctoral degree (dissertation and / or MD-PhD).
3. Applicants are clinically active at the time of application (at least 50% of the total workload) and remain clinically active during the grant period (at least 20% absolute).
4. If applicants already have Protected Research Time from another institution or program, the maximum amount of Protected Research Time that will be considered by Filling the Gap is such that the individual will not have more than 50% Protected Research Time during the grant period.

Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation is based on the academic potential of the applicant:

1. Qualification of the applicant
2. Quality of the research project
3. Suitability of the applicant for Filling the Gap

Review Process

The evaluation of the applications is carried out by means of a two-step procedure:

1. The applications are evaluated by external experts as well as by the evaluation committee of Filling the Gap.
2. Selected applicants are then invited to an interview, where they present their project to the evaluation committee and answer their questions.

The evaluation committee decides on behalf of the Faculty Board which applicants will be funded.

Evaluation committee

The Evaluation Committee consists of representatives of the Faculty of Medicine and its partner institutions and is responsible for the evaluation of grant applications. The members are appointed for a period of two years. 

Testimonials (in German)

Filling the Gap Grantees talk about their experiences: Testimonials 

Long term study

It is of great concern to the program management to support the university careers of female and male physicians with the "Filling the Gap" program. In order to evaluate whether the goals set are being achieved, an external evaluation was commissioned from the ICFG (Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies) at the University of Bern to conduct the surveys and evaluate their results. The study was completed in 2024.

Facts and Figures (in German only)

• 2021 (PDF, 399 KB)
• 2022 (PDF, 413 KB)
• 2023 (PDF, 386 KB)
• 2024 (PDF, 419 KB)

Certain excellent research projects in the field of internal medicine are funded by the   Walter and Gertrud Siegenthaler Foundation.

These regulations (PDF, 104 KB) govern the career development program "Filling the Gap" offered by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zurich.