New SNSF, EU and regional funding secured

The Institute has secured significant new competitive funding at national and European levels, reaffirming the excellence of its research in a challenging funding environment.

Four projects have been awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF):

ERUSARA, led by Dr. Jean-Marc Odobez and Dr. Emmanuel Senft, advancing assistive robotics through embodied reference understanding and shared autonomy;
DECOR, led by Dr. Sylvain Calinon, advancing ergodic control theory for robotic exploration, sensing, and manipulation;
AI Beyond Scaling, led by Dr. Damien Teney, studying the reliability and generalization of AI models to design training methods that are more compute- and data-efficient;
Saturna, in collaboration with the University of Bern, Idiap alumna Raphaëlle Luisier, and other partners such as USI, EPFL, and the National University of Singapore, will see Dr. Janna Hastings working on decoding non-coding RNA functions using biologically informed AI.

Despite tighter SNSF budget constraints and declining overall success rates, Idiap has achieved one of its strongest funding outcomes of the past five years.

At the European level, a new collaborative project, with Prof. Sébastien Marcel as a partner, will develop robust and explainable AI forensic tools to address the growing threat of deepfakes.

Prof. Sébastien Marcel is also engaged in a new Innosuisse project with Dr. Mathew Magimai-Doss, aiming to make audio deepfake detection legally compliant by ensuring that system decisions are transparent, verifiable, and legally defensible.

The Institute has also received support from the Loterie Romande to further develop its assistive robotics center, led by Dr. Emmanuel Senft and Dr. Sylvain Calinon.

In addition, new cantonal funding will support a cancer research initiative bringing together HES-SO, Idiap and the Canton of Valais. The Read Your Cell project will involve Dr. Janna Hastings and aims to translate RNA-seq data into predictive models of cancer cell metabolism, helping to identify new targets for precision oncology.

These results strengthen the Institute’s position as a leading and impactful research hub in Switzerland and across Europe.