Supervision

Supervision is a key factor in the dissertation process. You will need at lest one supervisor at the University of Vienna who is entitled to supervise doctoral candidates. Therefore it only makes sense to approach the University of Vienna with a certain topic if you could identify supervisors at the University of Vienna whose academic competences cover the subject area of your dissertation project.

Who can supervise?

According to the statutes of the University of Vienna the following researchers can supervise PhD candidates:

§ 15. (2) University professors, habilitated staff members, associated professors as well as assistant professors according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement for University Staff of the University of Vienna are entitled to, and in accordance with their other university responsibilities are also obliged to supervise and assess doctoral theses. Students are entitled to request the supervision of their doctoral thesis of these university employees. Doctoral candidates have to decide on the topic of their doctoral thesis in agreement with the supervisor. Supervision by more than one person authorised to supervise is admissible.

(3) not applicable

(4) Academic staff members holding a doctoral degree are entitled to supervise doctoral theses that are funded by third-party funds acquired in a competitive procedure with other academics while taking into account international reviews and whose purpose is the establishment of a group of early-stage researchers by academic staff members (promotion of excellence by the European Research Council, START and Wittgenstein prizes, “Junior Group Leader” by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund). The Studienpräses examines whether they meet the prerequisites. Employees referred to in this paragraph can also supervise master’s theses and diploma theses in the course of such research projects.

(4a) Academic staff members of the

1. GMI – Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology,

2. IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology,

3. CeMM – Research Center for Molecular Medicine or

4. IMP – Research Institute of Molecular Pathology

who are holding a doctoral degree and managing a research group at this institution are entitled to supervise doctoral theses that are fully funded by this institution, including third-party funds. Another prerequisite is that the doctoral thesis project is well embedded at the University of Vienna with regard to quality assurance. The Studienpräses examines whether the prerequisites are met.