Application & Selection

You will find a more detailed instruction for your application on the official website of the Vienna Biocenter PhD Programme. Twice per year, highly qualified students are pre-selected from all applications received, with the emphasis lying on academic and technical excellence. Those who meet the standard are invited for an interview at the VBC. The selection starts on a Sunday with a short introduction, followed by a tour around the institutes. After that, the group leaders who offer a position shortly present their work and during dinner you already have the chance to talk to them directly.

A selection of scientific publications will be sent to you before you come to Vienna. You have to choose and present one of those during your interview on Monday. In these 45 minutes you will also be questioned about your diploma or master thesis, and you have to prove your general scientific knowledge. Having accomplished this, the PhD students from the institutes take you out for dinner to give you the opportunity to gain an insight into the social and working life at campus. But most importantly you can also take a peek at the labs and have a look at what is happening “behind the scenes”.

The outcome of the interviews is presented on Tuesday. Assuming you passed, you can spend Tuesday and Wednesday talking to your preferred group leaders and their lab members. The aim is to make a suitable match, which usually means to determine whether you are the first choice of your favourite group leader.

Within three weeks, the successful applicants have to let their respective group leader know whether they are accepting the position or not. The remaining students are put on a vacancy list and still have the chance to get a position. If everything worked out for you and you got accepted in the group of your choice, you may start working whenever it suits you within six months.