Funded by the European Union, the Marie-Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) enhances (through the implementation of an original and personalised research project) the creative and innovative potential of excellent postdoctoral researchers who wish to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility. Open to all fields of research, the fellowship is a well-defined, 2-year-career stage.
Under the current funding programme Horizon Europe (2021 - 2027), the University of Vienna is the most successful Austrian organisation for hosting Postdoctoral Fellowships with 51projects awarded thus far.
In addition to the 11 immediately successful projects, 6 high scoring applications were placed on the reserve list and of these, 3 were additionally awarded.
With an average cut-off score for funding (across 16 panels) of 94.63%, versus 92.14% last year, the Fellowship programme continues to be increasingly competitive.
The new post-docs represent 12 different countries from Europe, Asia and North America. Notable again in this year’s results is the high percentage of female awardees. Female applicants made up 64% of the awardees this year, up slightly from 61% for last years call.
The new fellows are*:
- Alessandra Cera (Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy)
- Cristina López Hidalgo (Faculty of Life Sciences)
- Dennis Elbrächter (Faculty of Mathematics)
- Eszter Kováts (Faculty of Social Sciences)
- Julia Reed (Faculty of Philosophy and Education)
- Manca Grgić Renko (Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies)
- Melita Koletnik (Centre for Translation Studies)
- Sara R. Gallardo (Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies)
- Se Young Jang (Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies)
- Stephan Denisov (Faculty of Chemistry)
- Varsha Mathur (Faculty of Life Sciences)
- Thomas Davies (Faculty of Life Sciences)
- Umut Kuruüzüm (Faculty of Social Sciences)
Since 2020, the University of Vienna has been running an Expression of Interest programme to attract excellent postdoctoral researchers to apply for a MSCA-PF with the University of Vienna. This, combined with the dedicated support services provided to applicants by the DLE Research Services and Career Development has resulted in not only an increase in the number of applicants with the University, but also an increase in the success rate for applicants.
Further incentive for applicants is the third year of salary given to the top-ranking applicants based on the evaluation scores provided by the European Commission. Funded by the University, the additional year allows the fellow and supervisor to carry out additional research, publication, training or grant writing.
The 2024 Expression of Interest programme is now open.
(*1 additional awarded fellowship in the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies is not listed)
