Laurence Fazan and Christine Barral have recently joined the SPR office. Laurence advises researchers who wish to apply for third-party funding opportunities (mainly those of the Swiss National Science Foundation), and Christine now administers the University of Fribourg’s internal research funds, including the Centenary Research Fund, the Research Pool, and the Doc.Mobility programme.

Laurence Fazan has a background in geography, environmental sciences and botany and has completed a PhD in plant conservation at the University of Fribourg. She has also worked for the Swiss Federal administration in the field of sustainability. Her postdoctoral work brought her experience in obtaining third-party funding and managing research projects. Therefore, she knows the working environment of local researchers intimately, and in her new role at the SPR she supports researchers in finding and applying for grants that are suitable for their needs and projects. She focuses mainly on researchers in the natural sciences applying to the SNSF and is also responsible for managing the Unifr funding search platform: Pivot-RP. In her spare time, Laurence enjoys spending time outdoors with her family, reading books or carrying out craft projects.

Christine Barral is French and has been living in Bern for many years. Her translation studies led her to Paris and Edinburgh. As a translator she has worked in France, Germany and Switzerland for private companies in various sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry, communications, banking as well as for the state administration. She is therefore an ideal complement to our multilingual team. Christine now administers the University of Fribourg’s internal research funds, including the Centenary Research Fund, the research pool, and the Doc. Mobility programme.