The University of Helsinki (UH) annually allocates funding to doctoral programmes for salaried positions (employment contract).
The next application period for salaried positions will be on 29.08.-14.09.2023.
Salaried doctoral researcher positions are aimed at enabling full-time work on doctoral dissertations and doctoral studies, with the goal of completing a doctoral degree in four years. The exact duration of employment, its’ start and end dates are determined in the employment contract.
The salary and other further details concerning the employment relationship are available in the call for applications (available when the call is open).
You can apply for a salaried position in a doctoral programme if you are currently a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki or are planning to pursue a doctoral degree.
If you already have a doctoral study right at the University of Helsinki, you can apply for a salaried position, if you have not yet spent a total of four years with a UH funded doctoral researcher salary.
Please read your doctoral programme’s instructions below.
Applications for a salaried position in a doctoral programme are submitted by completing the application form and enclosing the required attachments.
If you do not yet have the right to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki, you can apply for the right in the September study right call or in the spring at the latest. Please note that this may result in your employment beginning later than 1 January 2024.
If you are offered a salaried position, you must apply and be awarded the right to pursue a doctoral degree in your doctoral programme within the six-month trial period.
Please note that you may apply for a UH-funded doctoral candidate position from a maximum of two doctoral programmes. If an applicant has submitted more than two applications, the two most recently dated will be considered and reviewed.
If you already have the right to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki, you may also apply for a salaried position from another doctoral programme that suits your research profile.
If you receive a salaried position from another doctoral programme, you will need to change your doctoral programme. This means that you may need to reapply for study right if your faculty or target degree changes. This application should be made in the spring at the latest. Please note that this may affect the start date of your potential employment. If you are applying for a salaried position in more than one doctoral programme, please complete a separate application form for each one.
You will find more instructions on applying from the doctoral programme specific instructions below.
On these pages you will find information on how to use the recruitment system.
Further information can be requested by writing to phd-positions(at)helsinki.fi
Current or future doctoral candidates whose dissertation topic falls within the key research areas of the Doctoral Programme in Human Behaviour.
If you do not yet have a study right in the Doctoral Programme in Human Behaviour you must attach a supporting statement signed by the supervisor(s) and the coordinating professor mentioned in the application.
If you do not have a supervisor yet, you can find more information about supervision.
*) Exception for clinicians 6-48 months: Applicants pursuing a specialist training in medicine or dentistry can apply for half of a UH-funded position (6 months/year). The applicants are expected to commit to full time (100%) doctoral training for a six-month period and to specialist clinical training for the remaining six months of the same calendar year.
You can apply for the salaried positions in the DPHuB if:
OR
OR
Before applying for a UH-funded doctoral candidate position, the applicant is required to find an appropriate research group and supervisor. Applicants are expected to contact prospective supervisors independently and agree on the details of the thesis project before applying for the UH-funded doctoral candidate position.
In order to be eligible for evaluation, a Recommendation letter must be completed by the primary supervisor in separate e-form by September 18th, 2023 at 16:00 EEST. It is the applicant's own responsibility to ask the supervisor to send a recommendation letter via e-form. The recommendation letters need to written in English. Recommendation letters are not accepted after the deadline.
In addition, a supporting statement signed by the supervisor(s) and the coordinating professor mentioned in the application must be attached to the application (unless you already have study right at the University of Helsinki). See more in the Application form section.
Applications for a salaried position are submitted via the University of Helsinki recruitment system.
The application form is open during the application period. You will find the application form for each doctoral programme during the open call period (29.08.-14.09.2023) from the University of Helsinki Open positions webpages (available during the call period).
You need to include the following attachments in this order to your application in the Doctoral Programme in Human Behaviour (DPHuB).
All attachments need to be combined as one pdf file and attached to the ‘CV/Ansioluettelo’ section of the application. The maximum size of the combined file is 5 MB.
When applying for a funded position, please use the English application form and write all parts of the application in English. Other applications will not be considered.
Please note that you may apply for a UH-funded doctoral candidate position from a maximum of two doctoral programmes. If an applicant has submitted more than two applications, the two most recently dated will be considered and reviewed.
Please note that even though the application closes at midnight, we advise you to submit your application earlier. We will not answer your question about the application, or the application form, after 16.00 EEST on the day the application closes.
In order to be eligible for evaluation, a Recommendation letter must be completed by the primary supervisor in separate e-form by September 18th, 2023 at 16:00 EEST. It is the applicant's own responsibility to ask the supervisor to send a recommendation letter via e-form. The recommendation letters need to written in English. Recommendation letters are not accepted after the deadline.
Applications received in time and fulfilling the application requirements are evaluated by external evaluators. The evaluation of the applications is based on the following criteria (weight %):
The board of the doctoral programme makes a proposal regarding appointment of salaried doctoral researcher positions. The director of the relevant employment unit makes the final decision on the appointments.
All applicants will be personally notified of the decisions by the end of November. The names of the applicants selected for the positions will be published on the doctoral programme’s web pages (if the applicant has given permission).
Please note that applications for the right to pursue a doctoral degree are processed according to a different schedule by the responsible Faculty. The relevant faculty makes decisions regarding study rights and applicants are personally notified in a separate notification to salary positions. If you are applying also for the study right, please read carefully the instructions for doctoral study right applicants from your doctoral programme webpage.
Further information
Other ways of funding a PhD project are:
Proposal for UH-funded doctoral candidate positions starting in 2024
Doctoral Programme in Human Behaviour (DPHuB) received 16 eligible applications for the University of Helsinki -funded doctoral candidate positions starting in January 2024. The applications were evaluated by external evaluators representing the DPHuB research areas. Based on the evaluation results, the following proposal was made by the DPHuB Board on November 6th, 2023. The host institution of the doctoral candidate makes the funding decision.
The names of the doctoral candidates recommended for funding are given below in alphabetical order (length of funding period and main supervisor in brackets):
The decisions for doctoral study right applications are given by the Faculty of Medicine by the beginning of December 2023.