Partnerships and Research Funding Manager

Project background

The Soft Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich builds robots that are soft, musculoskeletal, and partly alive. We develop artificial muscles, dexterous robotic hands, biohybrid systems, and the simulation and learning methods that drive them. Our work is published in journals such as Nature and Science Robotics, and it reaches the real world through industry collaborations and spin-offs. The lab belongs to the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering (D-MAVT) and sits in the CLA building at Tannenstrasse 3, on the Zentrum campus next to the ETH main building. About 25 researchers from all over the world work here, led by Prof. Robert Katzschmann.

This is a role with reach. You represent our lab toward company leadership and funding bodies, you shape which collaborations we enter, and you work directly with the professor.

Our research rests on two funding pillars: research partnerships with companies, and competitive grants from Swiss and European funders. Both are growing, and both need someone who owns them end to end. Today, partner conversations and proposal work compete directly with the scientific leadership of the lab.

We are therefore creating a dedicated role. It builds and holds the relationships with our corporate research partners, from the first conversation to the signed agreement and the years after it. It drives our grant acquisition at the SNSF, in Horizon Europe, and at foundations. And it manages our large funded projects, from budgets and reporting to the coordination of European consortia.

The goal is a stable funding base for the lab and a research team that can concentrate on research.

Job description

• You build and maintain research partnerships with companies. You identify firms whose research interests match ours, develop first contacts into funded collaborations, and keep those partnerships productive over years, in coordination with the professor and the team of researchers. This is the core of the role.
• You drive our grant acquisition. You track funding opportunities at the SNSF, in Horizon Europe, and at foundations, and you pursue them together with the professor.
• You co-write and coordinate proposals. You structure the application, build budgets and work packages, and write the administrative sections.
• You manage our running projects. You own reporting, budget control, milestones, and deliverables, and you coordinate our European consortia. You work closely with our lab admin on these matters.
• You are our interface to the ETH Research Contracts Group, ETH Transfer, the Grants Office, and departmental controlling, and you prepare contracts and agreements.
• You support the scientific operation of the lab by coordinating activities across projects and keeping project documentation on track.

Profile

• You are a proven relationship builder. You bring experience from business development, industry liaison, technology transfer, or corporate research collaborations, and you speak to company leadership as a peer.
• You hold a doctorate in engineering or natural sciences, or you bring equivalent professional experience. You can represent our research credibly toward corporate R&D teams.
• You have worked with competitive research funding. Experience with SNSF and European instruments is what we look for; experience coordinating an EU consortium is a plus.
• You are organized and reliable with budgets, deadlines, and reporting, and you keep several projects moving in parallel.
• You communicate clearly in English, in writing and in negotiation. German is a plus, not a requirement.

We offer

• A role with genuine ownership. You decide, together with the professor, which partnerships and which funding lines we pursue.
• Direct access to research that companies want: artificial muscles, dexterous hands, biohybrid systems, and embodied AI.
• A young, international team of about 25 researchers on the Zentrum campus, and the wider ETH network of transfer offices, centers, and spin-offs.
• The employment conditions of ETH Zurich, including flexible working hours and support for further education.
• Family and wellbeing: childcare support via the kihz foundation and ETH subsidies, paid maternity and paternity leave per ETH policy, and 5 weeks of vacation per year.
• The position is offered on a one year fixed-term contract, an extension to a long-term role may be possible.

An overview of all ETH benefits is available at .