CeMM is an interdisciplinary research institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences committed to advancing the understanding of human diseases through basic and biomedical research. In 2020 CeMM launched the CeMM Pre-ERC Postdoc Program in Cellular, Molecular and Digital Medicine after a workshop event for future scientific leaders where the first 10 candidates were selected out of more than 400 applicants.
The new CeMM Postdoc Program is carefully designed to prepare postdoctoral researchers for a successful ERC Starting Grant or comparable grant application and for an independent research career in top research organizations in Europe and around the world.
Selected candidates join CeMM for 3 to 6 years to address ambitious research questions in areas such as cancer, immunology, chemical biology, epigenetics, metabolism, and genomic medicine. Interdisciplinary research projects will focus on medically relevant problems, including disease mechanisms, modern therapeutics and diagnostic strategies. On top of this, postdocs will receive extensive career development and leadership training from the entire CeMM Faculty and additional experts in a highly collaborative and supportive environment.
Whom we are looking for:
- Candidates who want to pursue innovative biomedical research and substantially advance their scientific career
- Candidates with international professional experience and enhanced potential to receive an ERC Starting Grant in the future
- Open to both PhD (natural sciences) and MD (medical sciences) holders
- From a variety of academic backgrounds: molecular biology, biomedical research, bioinformatics, biochemistry, bioengineering, etc.
- With the motivation, skills, experiences, and initial achievements (subject to academic age) to qualify for a competitive postdoc program
- Required are scientific quality and originality, as well as a collaborative and interdisciplinary mindset
Eligibility Criteria:
- You must hold a PhD (or will have been awarded your PhD by the time of starting the Pre-ERC Postdoc Program in March 2023) and your PhD defence date must be no earlier than 2020
- You must have at least one first-author publication published by the time of starting the Postdoc
What we offer:
- A unique blend of a frontier research environment at top level with a strong medical and translational focus through the hospital setting and the connections to biotech and pharma
- An international group of highly collaborative colleagues that will help you achieve your scientific and career goals
- Top-notch environment with the ideas, projects, resources, infrastructure, collaborations, and mindset for ground-breaking research
- Excellent track record of past postdocs who have become internationally successful principal investigators, professors, entrepreneurs
- Strong focus on disease biology and translational research: cancer, metabolic disorders, inflammation/infection, aging, drug discovery
- Interdisciplinary projects connecting biology with medicine, experiments with computation, and discovery with translation
- Unique opportunity to engage close interactions with physicians and clinical researchers at the Medical University of Vienna on one of Europe’s largest medical campuses
- Opportunities to collaborate with industry (biotech/pharma) and to get involved in academic start-up/spin-off companies
- Training program in project management, scientific writing, visual communication, entrepreneurship, leadership and data science
- Special training for writing successful ERC Starting Grants as a ‘ticket’ to an outstanding academic career
- Mentoring Program within EU-LIFE, an alliance of 15 top research centres in life sciences to support and strengthen European research excellence
- Being part of a thriving academic and social community in Vienna, one the cities with the best quality-of-life in the world
- A competitive postdoc salary of EUR 4.061,50 gross monthly (following the recommendations of FWF), paid 14 times yearly
- The CeMM employment contract includes full insurance (health, accident, pension) and a one-off payment for moving from abroad
- CeMM’s HR department and administrative team offers support with relocation, visa applications, onboarding, family support, etc.
Information session
At 10:00am and 5:00pm CET on September 20, 2022, CeMM will host an online information event where you will be able to find out more about doing a postdoc at CeMM and applying to the program as well as have the chance to meet and talk directly with current pre-ERC program postdocs. To take part in this event, please sign-up here Postdoc Open Day - CeMM or visit the postdoc program page of the CeMM website.
The preferred starting date is March 2023 or earlier.
Deadline: 5 October 2022.