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The promotion of junior researchers is of great strategic importance to Swiss higher education institutions and research locations. Highly-trained junior researchers and excellent career prospects contribute to Switzerland's international competitiveness and national innovation strength.

For this reason, Switzerland is also a member of EURAXESS, a European initiative that supports researcher mobility and career development. More than 40 countries are involved in the EURAXESS network. swissuniversities coordinates the EURAXESS activities in Switzerland, which are financed by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

Researchers can find information on living and working in Switzerland on the EURAXESS website. They can also receive personalised, free advice at 14 EURAXESS Centres run by Swiss universities. Refugee researchers are specifically supported by the EURAXESS science4refugees initiative.

EURAXESS also maintains a Europe-wide job and research funding database for researchers who are looking for a position – whether at a higher education institution, a research institute, or in the private sector – or seeking project funding.

EURAXESS is committed to fair and attractive employment and career conditions for researchers. To this end, a new European Charter for Researchers (Annex II) was published at the end of 2023. It is a set of principles to support attractive research careers and serves to promote excellence in research and innovation across Europe. It describes the rights and obligations of researchers, employers, funders and policy makers with 20 key principles. These cover a wide range of topics such as freedom of research, supervision, career development and fair systems for assessing researchers. 
To implement the principles, there is a procedure for obtaining the "HR Excellence in Research" award. This is awarded to institutions that make progress in implementing the principles of the European Charter for Researchers in their policies and practices.

The majority of Swiss universities have appointed contact persons for the Charter. The dashboard provides an overview of the institutions that are involved in the process of obtaining the award.

Researchers at Swiss universities can also take advantage of a wide range of services to support their career development.