Currently 4 active cross-disciplinary and social impact grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in Switzerland. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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The fifth iteration of transmediale's Digital Art Residency, run with the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, awarded to one individual or collective working in digital art practices at the intersection of media arts, performance, sound and moving image. THEME: the 2027 programme sits under transmediale's 40th-anniversary framework RFC 40, named after the early internet Request for Comments series, and treats the festival as a counter-infrastructure: the call asks how a network stays legible to itself while surrounding structures break down, and how technical paradigms can be reconfigured into new cultural protocols outside extractive logics, moving from critique to construction. Proposals should offer alternatives to how we understand, respond to and shape the technological conditions we inhabit. WHAT IS OFFERED: an artist fee of CHF 2,000 per month for two months; a CHF 15,000 production grant supporting a new work or the continuation of an existing project, open to all formats and building on the research begun during the residency (the project must be completed by December 2027 at the latest); travel and accommodation for the festival and the residency; a shared modular working space at transmediale studio; connections to Berlin institutions and stakeholders; a public presentation in transmediale's year-round studio programme; and the option of an online publication in transmediale's journal. STRUCTURE: kick-off with a presentation of the residency projects during transmediale 2027 (26 to 31 January 2027, attendance optional but strongly recommended); onboarding and the first hybrid stretch in May 2027; the mandatory on-site month in Berlin in June 2027; and a second hybrid stretch including reporting in July 2027. Availability for the festival week and for the whole of June in Berlin are treated as key prerequisites. TIMELINE: open call 16 July to 28 August 2026 (23:59 CEST); selected residents announced October 2026. Applications are only accepted via transmediale's submission forms. Contact: info[at]transmediale.de.
foodculture days is opening up The Kitchen / Central Location, the living heart of its biennale in Vevey, to an outside collective for the festival's 6th edition. The Kitchen is at once an open-air kitchen, a gathering space and an artistic installation, sited by the lake on the Esplanade de la Paix along a busy promenade, hosting multidisciplinary projects, concerts, themed meals, public discussions, citizens' assemblies and moments of collective cooking. The call asks for new ways of inhabiting it. WHO THEY WANT: a transdisciplinary collective of scientists, artists, designers, craftspeople, cooks, activists and architects, either newly formed or already active; collaboration across generations, cultures and levels of expertise is encouraged. WHAT IS OFFERED: an open-air citizen experimentation laboratory in Vevey's public space, framed around rethinking ways of living and the relationship to time and to creation, and thinking together about the conditions under which multidisciplinary practices can flourish. THE BRIEF: kitchen and hospitality, lunch and dinner service, vegetarian meals with a vegan option. Meals should be affordable, seasonal where fresh produce is involved, and conceived in the spirit of a communal canteen: simple, generous, nourishing and full of flavour. Expected covers are roughly 100 guests Wednesday to Thursday and roughly 150 Friday to Sunday. WHAT THE FESTIVAL PROVIDES: curatorial support to develop the proposal, with particular attention to the themed meals; introductions to local producers, growers and artisans including farm visits and foraging sites; production support and volunteers throughout; and standard professional kitchen equipment and cooking facilities. BUDGET: CHF 15,000 all-inclusive (VAT included) covering travel, visas, equipment rental, any additional kitchen equipment, per diems, materials and artist fees; food costs and accommodation in Vevey are covered separately. THE SPACE: the pavilion, called Cuisine, is a modular metal structure assembled from repurposed agricultural greenhouse components on a 3.1 metre bidirectional grid, with pillars and arches forming ridge vaults, a textile covering naturally dyed yellow with reseda, and a terracotta brick hearth for wood-fired cooking laid directly on the floor. It comes with dining tables, low tables, a reception table, a shelf, a bar, pendant lights, 30 cushions, removable curtains, flags, blackboards and signage panels, and can expand, contract or be reconfigured. TIMELINE: Phase 1 deadline 31 August 2026 at midnight CET; three shortlisted proposals selected in late September, each invited to an online meeting and paid a CHF 250 research fee for Phase 2; final project selected and announced in early October 2026; collaborative development with the foodculture days architectural team October to November; production December to February; build and installation in Vevey 1 to 16 June 2027, with the collective present throughout those two weeks; 6th edition of the biennale 16 to 20 June 2027. PHASE 1 QUESTIONS: tell us about your collective (origins, intention, what makes you special); member biographies with collective or individual portfolios, website, Instagram, city of residence and practices; what the concept consists of in terms of food and cuisine, relationships, and scenography and spatial research; what you want to put into practice in the central pavilion, your vision and the kind of experience you want to create; any special requirements; and references, including a quote representing the collective, two reference texts, three images and optionally video. An Open Call Information Kit, a recording of the online information session and a Q&A are published on the open call site and are worth reading before applying.
Reflection is a Pro Helvetia grant supporting collective mediation projects that use innovative formats to foster critical reflection on artistic practice and cultural transformation, across all supported disciplines (design, literature, music, performing arts, visual arts, and innovation and society). Open to collectives comprising at least two cultural practitioners (artists, creatives, cultural practitioners, or art educators); solo projects are excluded. ELIGIBILITY: requires a connection to Switzerland (Swiss citizenship, or permanent residency with regular artistic activity in Switzerland); not open to practitioners without a Swiss connection. For international collaborations, at least 50 percent of practitioners must be from Switzerland. AMOUNT: maximum CHF 25,000, and no more than 50 percent of the total budget. Deadlines twice a year: 1 March (23:59 CET) and 1 September (23:59 CEST). Apply via the Pro Helvetia portal.
Pro Helvetia offers a two- to four-week research trip to one or more regions in Switzerland for cultural practitioners from the regions of its liaison offices: the Arab region, East Asia, South America, South Asia and Vietnam, and West, Central, East and Southern Africa. Applicants active in any of the disciplines supported by Pro Helvetia are welcome, and applications from both individuals and artist duos are accepted. SELECTION CRITERIA: permanent residence in one of the liaison-office regions and active participation in the respective cultural scene; a comprehensive portfolio and proven track record of professional activity in the applicant's field; strong professional interest in the selected destination connected to the applicant's artistic practice and to networking with the local cultural field; a concrete research topic that can deepen exchange between the cultural scenes of Switzerland and the applicant's country of residence; and knowledge of English or one of the Swiss languages. For environmental reasons, applicants are asked to consider a travel duration of at least two weeks. WHAT IS OFFERED: accommodation, travel costs, and daily allowances, plus a coach (a cultural professional from the local artistic field) to facilitate networking and exchange; artists with childcare responsibilities can apply for up to CHF 1,000 per month toward childcare or children's travel expenses (a budget must be presented in advance). EXCLUSIONS: applicants from countries outside the Pro Helvetia liaison offices' area of responsibility may not apply, and Pro Helvetia cannot consider requests from applicants enrolled in a school, university curriculum, basic training, or education programme. APPLICATION: submit a title and brief description of the proposal; a motivation explaining the professional interest and artistic research in the selected destination; the desired length of stay and destination; and a CV and portfolio. All applications must be submitted in English. KEY DATES: submissions accepted year-round; notification of decision eight weeks after submitting; earliest project start three months after application. Pro Helvetia assumes no responsibility for the approval of visa applications. Apply via the Pro Helvetia application portal.