ViCAS Mid-Career and Advanced Fellowships 2027-2028 at the Vienna Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Vienna, Austria [Stipend up to EUR 6,472.60 per Month]

The Vienna Centre for Advanced Studies (ViCAS) is the University of Vienna's interdisciplinary institute for advanced study, with fully equipped office workspaces in the heart of Vienna. It hosts around 30 fellows each academic year, divided over three residencies, and invites applications from international scholars across all academic disciplines who have an outstanding academic record and an interest in interdisciplinary engagement.

A ViCAS residency is designed to let a researcher focus on ambitious work without the distractions of everyday academic routines, to deepen an existing line of research, open it to new directions within or beyond the discipline, and start new collaborations. Fellows are asked to be present on-site throughout the fellowship and to take an active part in the life of the Centre and in exchanges with researchers at the University of Vienna.

Applicants choose one of two fellowship types according to the stage of their academic career:

• Mid-Career Fellowships: for researchers whose doctoral degree was awarded at least three years ago as on the call deadline and who have already gained a degree of academic independence.
• Advanced Fellowships: for researchers whose doctoral degree was awarded at least eight years ago as on the call deadline and who have an established track record of research excellence.

For both types, ViCAS offers three residency durations with fixed start and end dates:

• Full residency: 9 months, 1 October 2027 to 30 June 2028
• Fall residency: 4 months, 1 October 2027 to 31 January 2028
• Spring residency: 4 months, 1 March 2028 to 30 June 2028

Only one application may be submitted per call, since the application tool uses the applicant's u:account as identifier. Applicants who are flexible about dates may indicate more than one residency option in the same application, in which case the selection committee decides the period awarded. Repeat residencies are possible with a minimum gap of five years between start dates.

A Mid-Career Fellowship applicant is eligible if the doctoral degree was awarded at least three years before the call deadline, the record of research achievement is excellent relative to career stage, an independent research profile has been established, and a professor at the University of Vienna endorses the application.

An Advanced Fellowship applicant is eligible if the doctoral degree was awarded at least eight years before the call deadline, there is an established track record of research excellence, academic leadership can be demonstrated, and a professor at the University of Vienna endorses the application. For Advanced Fellowships preference is given to applicants holding a professorial or equivalent senior academic position, though those who can show outstanding academic leadership by other means are also encouraged to apply.

• Academic age runs from the date of the successful defence or viva of the PhD to the call closure date of 28 August 2026. Where no formal defence was held, the date of official approval or the date on the certificate applies, and where there are multiple doctorates the first PhD counts.
• Periods of career interruption since PhD completion are not counted toward academic age, and the application platform calculates academic age automatically.
• There is no age limit, current employment is not required, and retired scholars with an outstanding academic record may apply.
• Research doctorates equivalent to a PhD, such as DPhil, Dr. rer. nat. or EdD, are accepted provided the degree is a research doctorate from an accredited research institution.
• Scholars living in Austria may apply, but ViCAS gives strong preference to researchers who do not currently hold, and have not held in the five years before the call deadline, an institutional affiliation in Austria.
• Fellows may not hold another full-time fellowship or residency during the same period, and any additional commitments must not interfere with being in Vienna and engaging fully in ViCAS activities.
• No exceptions to the eligibility criteria are made, including where the three or eight year threshold falls a few days after the deadline.

A ViCAS Fellowship carries the right to a financial contribution from the University of Vienna, if needed. Once accepted, a fellow chooses one of two options, and the choice cannot be changed during the fellowship.

Option 1, employment by the University of Vienna with a monthly salary:

• Mid-Career Fellows: EUR 5,079.50 per month plus a lump sum of EUR 1,500 per month towards accommodation.
• Advanced Fellows: EUR 6,472.60 per month plus a lump sum of EUR 1,500 per month towards accommodation.
• The allowance increases by EUR 500 per month for each accompanying child under 18.
• A salary establishes a full-time employment relationship, so social security contributions and income tax are deducted from the total monthly payment, including the accommodation and child allowances. This option requires a signed employment contract, a bank account in Austria and adherence to all University employment rules.

Option 2, a financial contribution to the fellow's home institution, available only where the fellow is employed by the home institution for the total duration of the fellowship, with the fellow and the institution free to agree on transferring some or all of the amount:

• Mid-Career Fellows: EUR 63,000 for a 9 month residency, EUR 28,000 for a 4 month residency.
• Advanced Fellows: EUR 76,500 for a 9 month residency, EUR 34,000 for a 4 month residency.
• This option requires a signed Collaboration Agreement between the home institution and the University of Vienna, on a template provided by the University.

ViCAS does not cover relocation expenses such as travel costs, moving expenses, or application fees for residence permits and visas. There is no application fee for the fellowship itself.

All applications are submitted electronically through the link on the ViCAS website, all documents must be in English, and uploads must be PDFs named starting with Surname_Givenname without spaces or special characters (for example Surname_Givenname_CV.pdf). The application system has an autosave function that lets an applicant pause and continue later. The materials are:

• Evidence of academic independence, maximum 5,000 characters including spaces, entered in the form and required for Mid-Career applicants only. It should elaborate on indicators such as intellectual leadership, securing one's own funding as principal investigator, leading projects and teams, and building a distinct academic identity.
• A list of up to 10 of the applicant's most important publications, giving author names, title, source, publication date and DOI where available.
• A list of up to 10 of the applicant's most important invited talks, giving the title, the type of talk (keynote, plenary, invited lecture and so on), the name of the conference or event, the location and the year.
• A motivation statement of maximum 5,000 characters, outlining why ViCAS is the right place for the applicant and the project, and what the fellowship is expected to add to the research.
• A statement on value to the University of Vienna, maximum 5,000 characters. Teaching is not counted as a benefit, since the fellowships cannot offer teaching opportunities.
• The PhD certificate of the first doctorate in English or German, uploaded as one PDF, with a translation included in the same file if it is in another language (certification is not required at this stage).
• A CV in table form, chronological or systematic, of maximum 5 pages, with a publication list appended that does not count towards the page limit.
• A research proposal of maximum 10,000 characters, uploaded as one PDF, addressing the central research question or problem, the methodology, the originality and the gap in existing research, the potential contribution to interdisciplinary research and broader societal challenges, and, where experimental work is planned, how it will be carried out with the supporting faculty member. Because the selection committee spans disciplines, the proposal should be written for a broad academic audience and avoid overly technical language.

ViCAS does not provide laboratory space. Applicants who plan practical work must have the necessary research infrastructure provided by the supporting faculty member, and experimental time should not exceed 40 per cent on average per week.

Every applicant must identify one University of Vienna professor who has agreed to support the application, and securing that written support before the deadline is the applicant's responsibility. An application cannot be submitted until the supporting professor has completed the ViCAS Support Module.

• Only professors employed at the University of Vienna, tenured or tenure-track, may act as supporting faculty. Guest professors and lecturers are not eligible, nor are members of the ViCAS Leadership Team, and applications with supporters not employed by the University of Vienna will not be considered. A supporting professor may back more than one applicant.
• Professors can be identified through the University's organisation and structure pages, the u:cris research portal and the u:find course and staff directory. ViCAS recommends emailing a faculty member whose research aligns with the applicant's and requesting an endorsement.
• The supporting professor's University of Vienna email address is entered in the ViCAS Support Module section of the application form, and cannot be changed by the applicant once submitted.
• The system sends no automatic email to supporters, so the applicant must personally send the Support Module URL, the link to the Guidelines for Supporting Faculty, a PDF of the CV and research proposal (recommended, since no application details are visible to the supporter), and a reminder that the input is required before 28 August 2026 at 14:00 Vienna Time.
• The applicant should follow up to confirm receipt and submission. The status is visible in the application tool, but the assessment itself is not shown to the applicant.

Applications are assessed on the submitted materials together with the support from the University of Vienna professor, against five criteria that are not weighted:

• The quality and originality of the proposed research project.
• The project's potential to stimulate intellectual exchange within the ViCAS community and among researchers at the University of Vienna.
• The extent to which the fellowship will benefit the candidate's research.
• The candidate's academic profile.
• The contribution the candidate's profile and proposed project would make to the overall intellectual composition and interdisciplinary balance of the fellowship cohort.

Cohorts are curated to promote intellectual diversity across disciplines, research topics and career stages, and strong preference goes to researchers without a current or recent Austrian institutional affiliation. Because outcomes take account of the composition and aims of the cohort as well as individual merit, they do not reflect a strict ranking of applicants and individual feedback on decisions cannot be provided.

Read the Application Guidelines and the Questions and Answers section on the ViCAS website first, then:

• Step 1: create a personal University of Vienna account (u:account), consisting of a u:account UserID and password, through the u:account registration form.
• Step 2: open the ViCAS application through the application portal and complete it. Note the ViCAS warning that following the application link automatically opens an application file, and a supporting professor who has an open application file of their own will not be able to submit support for an applicant until that file is deleted.
• Register the supporting University of Vienna professor in the tool, invite them separately by email, and confirm that their support has been submitted.
• Submit the application before Friday, 28 August 2026 at 14:00 Vienna Time (CEST), which is 5:30 pm IST. An automated email confirms submission.

Questions not covered by the Guidelines or the Questions and Answers section can be sent to support.vicas@univie.ac.at.