VDSEE Completion Grants

Winter call 2025: tba in autumn 2024

The completion grants support selected VDSEE PhD-candidates in the final phase of their doctoral studies. All VDSEE PhD-candidates are eligible to apply, regardless of whether they have previously had a contract with the University of Vienna.

The funding period is 4 months during which the doctoral candidates are expected to complete and submit their doctoral thesis. Successful applicants will receive a 30 hours/week University assistant Prae Doc-contract.

Job grading in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement: §48 VwGr. B1 Grundstufe (praedoc) with relevant work experience determining the assignment to a particular salary grade.


Requirements

  • Applicants and supervisors must be VDSEE-members (= consented to the Code of Good Practice of the Doctoral School)
  • Applicants must have successfully passed the public presentation at the Faculty (FÖP) within the first 12 months after the start of Doctoral Studies, signed the doctoral thesis agreement and submitted all annual progress reports (from WS2020 on: including TAC-minutes). Please note that applications that do not fulfill these criteria will not be evaluated.
  • Applicants are expected to have an excellent record of Doctoral Studies and have made relevant academic achievements such as publications, conference presentations, etc.
  • Applicants are expected to complete and submit their doctoral thesis within the funding period of the completion grant.
  • All laboratory and analytical work must be completed before the start of the completion grant.

Application documents

  • Completed online application form 
  • A report on the status of the doctoral thesis including the abstract, a tabular overview of the chapters, information about the completion status of each chapter, and a work schedule for the completion of the doctoral thesis within the funding period. Please use the provided template.
  • CV including a list of publications and conference presentations (max. 3 pages).
  • Transcript of records (“Sammelzeugnis”)
  • All annual reports and TAC-minutes; TAC-minutes only need to be provided for PhD-candidates who started after WS2020.
  • Form signed by supervisor(s) and applicants consenting that the requirement for eligibility of the completion grant are met. 

Please send the application as a single pdf file (surname_completiongrant_06.2024.pdf) to docschool.vdsee [at] univie.ac.at. Only complete applications that meet all formal criteria will be evaluated.


Remarks

  • Applicants can only be funded once. The contracts cannot be prolonged.
  • Rejected candidates are eligible to submit a revised application again in the next call.
  • The successful candidates are employed at the University of Vienna and therefore subject to all associated rights and obligations. Conditions of employment must be met (e.g., chain contract regulation, requirements of aliens' law, etc.).
  • Completion grant covers exclusively the salary.
  • The VDSEE commits to equal opportunities and takes into account breaks or delays of Doctoral Studies e.g., due to parental leave, chronic illness or caring responsibilities.

 

Selection and decision

Grants will be awarded competitively based on the submitted documents. A jury consisting of VDSEE members will review all applications that fulfil the formal criteria. The jury will assess the applicants' progress towards completion of Doctoral Studies and decide which candidates receive funding. Members of the committee will be required to confirm that there is no conflict of interest. The decision will be communicated to the applicants no later than four weeks after the application deadline.The latest starting date for the contracts is 15 April 2024 (winter call) resp. 1 September (spring call).


Past Recipients

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  • Call 2024

    May

    • Brina Zagorc (Group: Evolutionary Anthropology, Supervisor: Ron Pinhasi)

     

    January

    • Sonia Rashid (Group: Environmental Change and Biodiversity, Supervisor: Stefan Dullinger)
    • Petra Lukeneder (Group: Bio-Oceanography and Marine Biology, Supervisor: Martin Zuschin)
    • Maryam Zekri (Group: Molecular Systems Biology, Supervisors: Ingeborg Lang, Daniel Tholen)
  • Call 2023

    March

    • Carlos de Gracia
    • Wan Li
    • Ahmed Hussein
  • Call 2022

    March 

    • KS Duffett Carlson
    • Zhengnan Cai
    • Benjamin Wölfl
    • Muhammad Bilal Sharif
  • Calls 2021

    November 

    • Otto Monge Solano
    • Zhiqing Xue

    March 

    • Manuel Amadori
    • Tatiana Lebedeva (Bagaeva)
    • Faviel Alejandro López Romero
    • David Andres Salamanca Diaz
    • Philipp Weber
    • Shuang Zhang
  • Calls 2020

    December 

    • Kirsten Mandl