sowi:docs Fellowship Programme 2025

Application period: 3 March–13 April 2025 (two positions)

The sowi:docs Fellowship Programme aims at recruiting the best candidates. All candidates are in direct competition with each other, regardless of their fields of research. Applicants need the support of a supervisor who is a member of the ViDSS, must provide a CV indicating their above-average qualifications in the discipline in which they intend to write their doctoral thesis and have to submit a research proposal that is forwarded to international experts for review.

sowi:docs Fellows are employed with the University of Vienna for 30h/week according to the applicable collective bargaining agreement. The announcement is made for 3 years. The employment contract is initially limited to 1.5 years and is automatically extended to a total of 3 years, unless the employer submits a declaration of non-renewal after a maximum of 12 months.

sowi:docs Fellows are members of the academic staff and enjoy all rights and duties that come with such a position. sowi:docs fellows receive travel funds from their departments and can apply for ViDSS Research Funds after the successful public presentation of their intended doctoral project at the Faculty of Social Sciences, which takes place in the first year. Additional funding for research related costs has to be acquired by the fellows themselves and is not covered by the fellowship.

sowi:docs Fellows are enrolled on the doctoral programme in Social Sciences at the University of Vienna and become members of the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences. As ViDSS Students, fellows actively participate in the activities organised by the doctoral school and complete the milestones of the doctoral programme throughout their doctoral studies.

Requirements

All applications must be supported by a faculty member (1) employed with the University of Vienna, who is (2) working in the subject area of the planned thesis, and who is (3) a listed supervisor within the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences. It is a requirement that the relevant faculty member has already accepted the applicant as a doctoral candidate when they submit their application.

Important: Each ViDSS faculty member can only support ONE candidate per annual call. They may, however, additionally be listed as members of a planned supervisory team in applications supported by other faculty members. This may be indicated in a candidate’s letter of motivation.

Applicants have to be granted admission to the doctoral programme in the Social Sciences at the University of Vienna in the winter semester of 2025/2026 or the summer semester of 2026. If the applicant is already a doctoral candidate in the Social Sciences at the University of Vienna, they must have been admitted no earlier than in the winter semester of 2024/2025. Applicants who have already been working on their doctoral thesis in a funded position before October 2024 (at the University of Vienna or elsewhere) are not eligible for a sowi:docs Fellowship. Applicants who have already completed a doctoral degree are not eligible.

sowi:docs fellows must comply with the rules and regulations for passing the public presentation at the Faculty and for concluding the doctoral thesis agreement with their supervisor/s as specified in the ViDSS.

Application documents

1. Letter of motivation: Describe your previous academic achievements, your mid-term career goals and your motivation for the subject area you chose. Include the name of the supervisor at the ViDSS who has accepted you as a doctoral candidate.
2. CV in tabular form (no more than three pages including a list of publications, if available)
3. Degree certificates (incl. transcripts) of previously completed university degree programmes
4. Abstract of the research proposal (no more than 250 words including a working title of the doctoral thesis project)
5. Research proposal (no more than 4,000 words not including references, font size of 11pt, 1.5 line spacing): A research proposal for the sowi:docs Fellowship Programme must include:
   
          • Current state of research and positioning of the research project
          • Academic goals and methodological approach
          • Ethical considerations
          • Work schedule and required financial and material expenses
          • Preliminary bibliography
   
   To facilitate double-blind review, please remove any identifying information, such as your name, from your research proposal before submission.
6. Positive statement/s from your future supervisor/s: Following the submission of your application, your supervisor/s at the ViDSS will be asked to complete and submit a form containing a set of questions about you and your doctoral thesis project. The deadline for the submission of this statement is 11 May 2025. Please note that your application is not complete and will not be considered without a statement from one of your supervisors at the ViDSS. Please note that each ViDSS faculty member can only support ONE candidate per annual call.
   

All documents have to be written in English and submitted in one single PDF file via the University's job platform (the link is available during the application period).

Only complete applications that fulfil the formal criteria will be considered for assessment. It is not possible to make amendments once an application has been submitted.

Selection

A jury, consisting of experts who are members of the Faculty of Social Sciences, will review all applications that fulfil the formal criteria. The jury decides which applications are forwarded to international reviewers. After the first selection procedure, all applicants are informed about the jury’s decision.

Applications selected by the jury are reviewed by international reviewers from outside the University of Vienna. Reviewers are asked to assess the proposals according to the following criteria: innovation, academic relevance, methodological appropriateness and feasibility. In well-founded cases, applicants can specify up to two researchers who should not act as reviewers for their application.

During a second meeting, the jury will discuss and compare all applications and reviews in detail and compile a final shortlist of candidates. The reviewers’ assessments will be the main basis for the shortlist. In addition, the jury members will take the academic potential of the applicants into consideration and assess the research proposals according to the duration candidates have already been working on their doctoral thesis projects.

If, following the deliberations, the number of shortlisted candidates exceeds the number of fellowships available, the final decision to award the sowi:docs Fellowships is based on random selection. If applications are unanimously selected for funding, they are excluded from the lottery. In that case, the decision to award the remaining scholarships is based on random selection. After the final decision, the reviews are anonymised and forwarded to the applicants.

It is possible to apply for the sowi:docs Fellowship Programme again. In your letter of motivation, please describe the progress that you have made since the first application and how you have revised your research proposal based on the feedback you received from the jury or the reviewers.

Applicants do not have recourse to legal action.

 FAQs