Funding Opportunities
In many cases, financing a doctorate is a task that requires a certain amount of creativity. Often different financing options have to be combined, which requires a certain amount of expertise in raising funds.
Here we give you an overview of your options!
Employment as a research assistant
Research assistants are employees at an institute of the University of Graz. With their work, they support the implementation of various institute matters: These include, in particular, teaching activities for Bachelor's and Master's students, participation in the research program and administrative support. In addition to these tasks, there is also the possibility of a doctorate.
Current job advertisements can be found in the University of Graz bulletins and on the job portal.
Research assistants in third-party funded projects are employed as part of a research project and also have the opportunity to do a doctorate. To ensure this, doctoral candidates can be employed for a maximum of 75%.
Programs
Special mention should be made of the doc.funds, which are funded by the FWF for (at least) four years for a specific research project. The doc.funds at the University of Graz offer good integration into the international community as well as integration at institute level, and at the same time enable supervision of the doctoral candidates by many researchers, sometimes from different faculties.
Employment as a research assistant is usually temporary and predominantly part-time.
Here you can find a courtesy translation of the operation agreement for academic staff.
Scholarships
Doctoral scholarships can be seen as a form of alimony and help to secure living expenses for the funding period. Scholarship holders have no employment relationship with the university (with the exception of the DOC scholarship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences) and are therefore formally independent.
Please note that application deadlines and the duration of the individual funding programs vary greatly. The process from application to admission may take a few months, for which applicants should plan accordingly.
Part-time doctorate
As funding opportunities are very limited, many doctoral candidates finance their dissertation through non-university employment. When planning your doctoral thesis, it is important to bear in mind that the completion of the dissertation can be delayed if you are doing a part-time doctorate, especially if the dissertation project is not related to your job.
