Open to all fields of research, the Marie-Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) is a well-defined, 2-year-career stage. Funded by the European Union, the fellowship 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.
The University of Vienna is the most successful Austrian organisation for hosting Postdoctoral Fellowships with 70 projects awarded thus far under the current funding programme Horizon Europe (2021 - 2027) and a dedicated support programme for MSCA-PF applicants run by the Research Services and Career Development - EU and International Programmes Unit.
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.
In addition to the 15 successful projects, 3 high scoring applications were placed on the reserve list. This year also saw 4 projects receiving scores of 100%. An additional notable statistic for this year was the gender composition of successful candidates. Previous years have seen many more female applicants being successful; however, this year, the majority of successful applicants were male (66.67%), with female and non-binary applicants making up the remaining percentage.
The new post-docs represent 12 different countries from Europe, Asia and North America.
The new fellows are*:
- Maria Cocurullo (Faculty of Lifesciences)
- Vanja Karan (Faculty of Computer Sciences)
- Giorgio Lizzul (Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies)
- Jesús Lucia-Tamudo (Faculty of Chemistry)
- Gregor Mathes (Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy)
- Ioannis Patramanis (Faculty of Lifesciences)
- Ruizhe Pei (Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science)
- Steve Peigneur (Faculty of Chemistry)
- Mina Radovic (Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies)
- Sarah Schweighofer (Max Perutz Labs)
- Lucy Szaboova (Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy)
- Tomohisa Sebastian Tanabe (Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science)
- Paulus Wagner (Faculty of Social Sciences)
- Valentin Waschulin (Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science)
*an additional fellowship was awarded to the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies
For the sixth year, the Research Services and Career Development at the University of Vienna will be running an Expression of Interest programme to attract excellent postdoctoral researchers worldwide who are interested in applying for a MSCA-PF with the University of Vienna. The EoI, combined with the extensive 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 rates.
The 2025 Expression of Interest programme will open shortly.
