Admission

After you have been approved for a position in the Doctoral School, your first step is to enroll at the University of Vienna by following the instructions on the website of the center for Doctoral/PhD Programmes. Application takes place online via u:space and is possible throughout the year.

In accordance with your supervisor, you can choose one of the following doctoral research fields: 

Find out more about the doctoral research fields here.

Typically for admission, the following documents are required:

• Description of the intended doctoral project 
  • max. 4 pages in A4
  • outline the intended doctoral project, its research questions and objectives, as well as the current state of research that provides the basis for the intended doctoral project
  • info sheet
    • Life Sciences
    • Natural Sciences
• Letter of motivation
• Curriculum vitae
• Indication of Willingness to Supervise a Doctoral/PhD Candidate

Once you've enrolled, the admissions office will contact you to get your student ID number (Matrikelnummer) and student ID card.

Please note that this is not connected to your employment as a PhD student. Start the admission process as soon as possible, as degrees from universities abroad can take some time to get evaluated and approved by the admission center.

Take care to renew your enrollment on time every semester. If you are employed as a PhD student, the study fee will be waived (conditions apply) and you will only have to pay the student union fee (approximately 20€/semester). Make sure to enter your Austrian social security number in your student account's personal data, so that your employee data and student data can be linked.

First Year

Your first year constitutes the entry phase of your PhD. During this time, you will familiarize yourself with your thesis project, read literature and start preliminary experiments. You are also encouraged to take part in our onboarding courses such as data management.

Our doctoral school aims to ensure consistent feedback for each student's research projects and questions. To this end, every student should assemble a thesis advisory committee with the help of their supervisor. The committee should consist of your supervisor, another faculty member and one researcher from outside the faculty (they can either be from the University of Vienna or from an entirely external university/research centre). Your committee should meet with you at least once a year to give feedback and suggestions on your project.

Before the end of your first PhD year (ideally after 9-10 months), you are expected to prepare an exposé and present your project to your thesis advisory committee. This is referred to as the "prelim" and is often the first meeting of the thesis advisory committee. A recommended document structure that you can use for your exposé can be downloaded here.

Prelim

Please refer to our prelim checklist for details on how to prepare for and organize your prelim. During your prelim, you will first present your project (max. 30 minutes), followed by a discussion (ca. 30 minutes), and finally an evaluation of your project. The evaluation criteria are:

• knowledge and understanding of the research field
• research performance
• quality of future research plans
• completion of onboarding courses (data management, introductory courses)

 Your thesis advisory committee will give you extensive feedback. On a positive prelim, your committee will inform the doctoral school via our feedback form and you will be able to present your research to your peers at the next New PhD Science Day. Your supervisor fills and signs the form for the entire committee. At least 1 month before the New PhD Science Day, please send your exposé (reworked with the feedback you received from your committee) to the Doctoral School at vds-mes.cemess@univie.ac.at In addition, please prepare the following documents together with your exposé:

• Regulations relating to good scientific practice (SL/W1)
• Registration of the doctoral thesis topic and announcement of the supervisor(s) (SL/D11)
• if applicable: Approval of financial support of the doctoral thesis topic (SL/W4)

New PhD Science Day

The New PhD Science Day takes the place of the "FÖP" / faculty open presentation. Here you present a short version of your prelim talk, adapted with the feedback you received from your thesis advisory committee, to your peers. We are aiming to make this an event focused on student networking and community building and plan to host it in person in the future, as soon as the current pandemic situation allows.

The dates for the next New PhD Science Day are announced on this page.

The Following Years

After you and your supervisor have signed the doctoral thesis agreement, it's time to fully delve into the research phase of your PhD! 

You are required to submit a yearly report of your progress to vds-mes.cemess@univie.ac.at . We also ask that you and your supervisor fill our committee meeting information form after each yearly PhD committee meeting and send it to us.

We suggest the following procedure to keep your administrative efforts to a minimum:

• Fill the annual report template 
• Discuss it in the meeting with your committee
• Adapt the report based on the feedback of the committee, sign it and hand it in to the doctoral school

You will be reminded to organize your yearly committee meeting 2 months before the meeting is due to take place.

This is also the time to attend conferences and workshops as well as University courses to gather the required number of ECTS points for completing your studies (see below). The University also offers a range of soft skill seminars free of charge at the Center for Doctoral Studies (workshop program). In addition, you will most likely write a number of scientific papers/publications.

ECTS Requirements

Your PhD curriculum requires you to collect a number of ECTS points according to your doctoral thesis agreement before handing in your thesis. ECTS can be gained in a number of ways:

• by attending courses relevant to your curriculum at the University of Vienna (course directory - find VDS-MES specific courses at number 57) or other universities
• by attending workshops
• by attending and presenting (poster/talk) at conferences

ECTS for conferences, workshops and external courses have to be approved by the head of the doctoral school. Please hand in documentation of your attendance and/or presentations to the doctoral school office at vds-mes.cemess@univie.ac.at . You will then be informed about the amount of ECTS awarded to you.

Please note that you might be required to complete certain courses or attend conferences specifically outlined in your doctoral thesis agreement.

Publications

For many of you, your PhD will be the first time you are writing a scientific publication. As part of our soft skill curriculum, the doctoral school is offering intensive courses on paper writing every semester. 

The Center for Doctoral Studies also offers workshops on the topic of scientific writing.

As a member of our doctoral school, the University of Vienna's Affiliation Policy (only in German) requires you to list the doctoral school as an affiliation when you submit a publication that resulted from your PhD project. Please list the doctoral school like this:

University of Vienna, Doctoral School in Microbiology and Environmental Science, (optional address: Djerassiplatz 1, 1030) Vienna, Austria.

Dissertation

The format of your dissertation is agreed upon by you and your supervisor and outlined in the doctoral thesis agreement. Most likely, you will be required to write a cumulative dissertation, as is the norm in the field of Life Sciences and Natural Sciences. This form of thesis usually includes 2 to 3 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, which might need to be in a certain status by the time you hand in your dissertation (e.g. one published, one accepted, one submitted), as well as an introduction and discussion part.

Please find the formatting requirements for your thesis here, as well as the obligatory template for the title page here.

Reviewers

Your thesis needs to be reviewed and graded by experts in the field. Together with your supervisor, you need to make a suggestion of three potential reviewers, of which two will be chosen. Reviewers must have a habilitation (or equivalent teaching qualification) and must not be in a close scientific relationship with your or your supervisor(s). This is defined as not having published papers together with you or your supervisor(s) in the last five years. This also excludes your TAC Members. External reviewers are strongly preferred.

Please contact your reviewers and make sure they are available and willing to review your thesis before you officially hand in the reviewer suggestion form! If they have questions about the process, you can also send them the link to our short information page. After you have confirmed with the reviewers, hand in the following documents to the study service center (ernst.castellitz@univie.ac.at):

• Assignment of a thesis to reviewers 
• Assignment of a thesis to reviewers - Abstract
• For external reviewers, a CV of the reviewers is needed in addition. You might find it on their website, or you can simply ask them to send it to you when they agree to serve as a reviewer.

In general, your reviewers have four months to hand in their final reviews to the study service center. In mutual agreement, shorter timeframes can be arranged. Timeframes of 1-2 months are common.

Please take note that the assignment of reviewers takes about a month to complete from the side of the University of Vienna. Therefore, it is advised to start this process before you hand in your dissertation to save yourself time. You can start the process as early as 6 months before you hand in the dissertation, if desired. Only if both reviewers submit a positive report on the thesis, the doctoral candidate can register for the public defense.

The appointment of the reviewers however will be done by the Studienpräses. There is a possibility of getting travel costs of external reviewers refunded. Detailed information can be found on the information sheet of the Studienpräses.  

Final Thesis Submission & Defensio

After you have finalized your dissertation, it first has to go through a plagiarism check. After this evaluation has been successfully completed, you can officially hand in your dissertation (as long as you have completed your ECTS requirements by that point!). Please prepare the following forms and hand them in to your study service center (not to the doctoral school administration):

• Doctoral thesis submission
• Upload confirmation of the thesis to the plagiarism check server
• Your own CV
• if requested by the study service center: list of your completed ECTS requirements ("Prüfungspass")

In addition, you need to deliver 3 hardcover bound copies of your thesis to the study service center. Costs for printing and binding might be covered by the doctoral school - please contact us for details at vds-mes.cemess@univie.ac.at 

After the plagiarism check is complete, the study service center will send your thesis to the reviewers and collect their reviews for you. 

After you have received your dissertation reviews, it is time to organize your defensio, the final step of your PhD.

Please prepare the form Registration for doctoral thesis defense (Defensio) and send it to your study service center at least 2 weeks before the date of your defensio. The doctoral school can help you with booking a room or setting up a Zoom meeting for your defensio.

You will organize your own examination committee. Often, it consists of your two thesis reviewers as well as one other researcher working in the field. The formal criteria for members of your examination committee are established expertise in your research field and a PhD degree (different to the criteria for thesis reviewers, habilitation or equivalent qualifications are NOT required for the examination committee). VDS MES requires the examination committee to be independent and therefore does not allow your supervisor and your TAC members to participate in it. 

If a member of the examination committee should not be able to participate in your defensio on short notice (e.g., due to a major travel delay or sickness), the doctoral school can instantly replace members of the examination committee so the defensio can take place. Any replacement will require your explicit agreement. Alternatively, you may decide to postpone your defensio. Whatever you decide, VDS MES will support you intensively in such a case.

After your successful defensio, the only thing left is to collect your PhD diploma from the study service center. Congratulations!