Swiss AI Initiative small compute grants
The Swiss AI Initiative gives Swiss research teams up to 32,000 GPU hours on the CSCS Alps system for six months. Rolling, reviewed monthly.
The Swiss AI Initiative small compute grants give research teams six months of access to the CSCS Alps supercomputer. The initiative pools compute across Swiss academic institutions to support research on frontier AI foundation models.
Requests are typically between 20,000 and 32,000 GPU hours, and smaller requests are possible. In 2026 the initiative aims to hand out 10 to 20 million GPU hours through its small and large grants.
At least one team member must work at a recognised Swiss research institution, at 50% FTE or more in a permanent or tenure track research role. People from companies, NGOs or startups can be part of the team, but they cannot request or access the compute.
Applications are accepted all the time. New submissions go to review on the 1st of each month, and decisions come in about six weeks. The research plan is at most two pages, in English, as a PDF, using the provided templates. Submit it through the grants portal.
The initiative looks for projects that advance core AI capabilities such as scalability, efficiency, alignment, safety or evaluation, and that follow open science principles. Questions go to small-grants@swiss-ai.org.
Quick answers
Do I need experience with large training runs?
Yes. Applicants must show experience with multi GPU or multi node training.
Can a small grant lead to a larger one?
Yes. A successful small grant may lead to a later proposal for a large grant of more than 500,000 GPU hours.
When can the project start?
As soon as it is accepted.