Leading Houses are Swiss Research Institutions mandated to pursue bilateral cooperation and develop scientific relations with priority partners in key countries that represent great potential for Swiss scientific and technological expansion. In its role as the Leading House for the Latin America region, the University of St.Gallen (i) represents the interests of the Swiss scientific community vis-à-vis its Latin American partners, (ii) advise and share experiences with the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), (iii) develops and manages funding instruments to promote bilateral cooperation between international teams, (iv) ensures the communication of opportunities for cooperation with the Swiss research and innovation community, liaising with the scientific departments of Latin American and Swiss Embassies and with the Swissnex network.
An overview of funding opportunities and upcoming calls can be found on this website. For more information and updates on specific calls and funding instruments, please visit our website regularly or contact the program administrator.
Director
Program Manager, Research Programs
Program Manager, Innovation Programs
Administrator, Research Programs
In the Leading House model, selected Swiss institutes of higher education are commissioned by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) to set up cooperation instruments for seed funding and innovative pilot projects under the framework of the bilateral programmes. This has proved to be a useful and efficient format for establishing privileged contacts and testing new instruments of research and innovation cooperation. Between 2017 and 2020, more than 500 pilot research and innovation activities with these new countries and regions received funding. In consultation with the Rectors' Conference swissuniversities, has commissioned for the period in 2021 to 2024 the University of St.Gallen with the Leading House in Latin America (from SERI website).
The Early Career Grants (ECG) aim to promote research in all Latin American countries and to support fieldwork in the region
The Academia-Industry Training (AIT) is a start-up accelerator program to support young scientists from Switzerland, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
The aim of the Consolidation Grant (COG) is to fund advanced, solid projects that bridge the gap between smaller instruments and larger funding calls (e.g. SNSF projects).
The aim of the Research Partnership Grants (RPG) is to strengthen or initiate scientific exchange between researchers from Swiss and Latin American institutions in all disciplines by enabling them to conduct joint preliminary research and organize meetings, conferences or workshops.
