The doctoral programme of our School offers an internationally competitive doctoral training. It includes the writing of an original research work in the form of a dissertation and a training component.

Based on the Curriculum of the Doctoral Programme in Natural Sciences and Technical Sciences in the field of Natural Sciences" of the University of Vienna, PhD candidates have to obtain in total 30 ECTS during their doctoral training.

PhD Candidates are required to

• join the seminar series (2 ECTS in each semester)
• join the joint seminars (2 ECTS in each semester)
• present publicly their research project within the first at the faculty, and upon approval to sign the doctoral thesis agreement and the Code of Conduct, and to
• submit annually a progress report

In addition, they can select courses from the existing curriculums to fulfill the requirements.

PhD candidates are encouraged to

• attend international conferences and workshops with active contribution
• attend the annual retreat (2 ECTS), where lectures will be held by scientists and teaching personnel of of the Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution on topics of general interest both, societal and scientific, such as biodiversity loss and potential consequences, evolution of organisms in a changing world, etc.
• organise ad hoc workshops on technical and methodological advances whenever timely and necessary, e.g. on new statistical tools, bioinformatic methods, new imaging methods, etc. Such activities will be recognised with ECTS according to the workload (guidelines will follow soon).
• attend transferable skills training such as training courses on how to improve oral presentations, communication with the lay public (e.g. how to talk to journalists from various media (TV, radio, newspapers), ethics in scientific research, sustainable use of resources (SDG goals) and responsible science.