VIP2: new postdoctoral programme at Vienna BioCenter

The Vienna International Postdoctoral Program (VIP2) is a new, three-year fellowship program, which will provide prime research conditions as well as a comprehensive scientific education scheme for postdoctoral scientists.

VIP2 offers an outstanding research environment, and will boost the careers of fellows by supporting them with a structured training and career development program under the principle "Inform, Inspire, Innovate":

• Inform via structured mentoring and a training program.
• Inspire by providing outstanding supervision within a vibrant life sciences research campus.
• Innovate by supporting fellows to make ground breaking discoveries that enable them to become leaders in the academic sector and other sectors.

VIP2 will foster exposure to different sectors and facilitate career transitions. The program offers a two-mentor scheme (the second mentor can be from a different sector) and opportunities for a two-month secondment.  Fellows will be advised and supported by an inter-sectoral advisory board.

The research groups participating in VIP2 cover the full scope of modern life sciences. The research topics range from structural to organismal biology, from gene expression to neurobiology, and from microbiology to molecular medicine. A similar diversity is seen in the research models that are being explored. The Vienna BioCenter has an extremely collaborative and collegial atmosphere, which is facilitated by opportunities for communication and interaction, like the campus seminar series and regular social events.

Call for applicants

The first VIP2 call for 15 fellows opens on 15 April (deadline 15 June), applicants with a PhD in biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, engineering, computer science, and bioinformatics are eligible to apply.

Eligibility criteria

• A PhD in life sciences or related disciplines.
• A scientific project, matching the research carried out on campus.
• A first-author publication or manuscript published on bioRxiv or arXiv. 
• By the time of the call deadline applicants should not have resided in or carried out their main activity (work, studies) in Austria for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the call deadline. 

For more information visit the Vienna BioCenter Training website: https://training.vbc.ac.at/post-docs/vip2/ 

VIP2 is supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie grant agreement No. 847548.