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
The Doctoral Programme in Integrative Life Science (ILS) is an international doctoral program providing structured training in life sciences areas requiring multidisciplinary skills and capability engage in multiprofessional cooperation. The Life Science areas in Finland share a strong component of multidisciplinary approaches bridging research in basic biosciences, computational sciences and medicine. The research groups affiliated in ILS represent the highest quality life science research in Helsinki. Their research interests cover nearly all aspects of modern life sciences ranging from molecular medicine and developmental biology to biophysics and systems biology. The integrative aspect of research may occur on various levels: versatile approaches to the research question, different levels of complexity (e.g. molecular, cellular, tissue level), or diversity of methodology used.
ILS thematic research areas:
You can find ILS degree structure in the Instructions for students (select ILS from the dropdown menu).
The doctoral programme is offering 5 positions, starting in January 2024. Doctoral researcher positions funded by the University of Helsinki are primarily aimed at young researchers who are at the beginning of their doctoral studies. The salaried positions are for 1–4 years of full-time work and the length of the employment contract is determined by the stage of the applicant's doctoral thesis. Only full years may be applied for.
In addition to doctoral programme-specific positions, University of Helsinki Doctoral School allocates 10 strategically targeted doctoral researcher positions for the four-year period 2024–2027 in a thematic call. Theme of the call is Multidisciplinary research on One Health including a global dimension and the appointees in this call are selected among the high-scoring 4-year applicants in all doctoral programmes by a separate multidisciplinary thematic evaluation panel. If you want to apply for these positions, please fill out the ‘Thematic call’ section in the application form.
One Health is understood in its widest scope referring to an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and the environment. The global dimension may be evident in the research proposals in the spirit of global responsibility, with a special focus on Africa. Groundbreaking basic research, open-minded curiosity and cooperation that transcends boundaries are supported. The projects are expected to increase our knowledge towards building a sustainable future by finding solutions to both local and global issues and thereby benefiting the global community.
In addition, University of Helsinki Research Foundation allocates 10 positions to high-scoring 4-year applicants in all doctoral programmes. The Foundation emphasizes multidisciplinarity and the applicant's ability to explain which societal problems or questions the research aims to answer.
You can apply for the salaried positions in ILS if:
OR
OR
Please note that the application form requires you to upload a copy of your degree diploma (MSc, MD or equivalent). If you have not yet obtained the degree diploma, you can upload an official transcript of your studies thus far.
Applications for a salaried position are submitted via the University of Helsinki recruitment system.
The application period will open on the 29th of August 2023 and close on the 14th of September 2023. The application form is open during the application period. You will find the application form for each doctoral programme during the open call period from the University of Helsinki Open positions webpages.
Mandatory attachments for all applicants are: copy of your degree diploma, CV, and research plan.
When applying for a funded position, please use the English application form and write the whole 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.
ILS-specific questions to the supervisor’s recommendation letter:
There is also a separate question regarding supervisor training. If you have completed supervision training, please provide the date and the name of at least the most recent course. You don’t need to attach any certificates, but please be ready to provide one later if asked.
In ILS, the applicants are evaluated based on their written applications by an external panel. Top candidates are invited to a critical thinking assignment. ILS board makes the final decisions based on scores from both written applications and the critical thinking assignment. The decisions are blinded so that external panel members do not see the scores from other members and the board members do not see the names of the applicants when making the final decisions.
ILS-specific evaluation criteria
Please note, that the research question must represent fundamental research in one or more of the scientific fields covered by ILS:
The integrative aspect of research may occur on various levels: versatile approaches to the research question, different levels of complexity (e.g. molecular, cellular, tissue level), or diversity of methodology used.
STEP 1: Written applications
External panel will use the following criteria when evaluating the written applications:
If the applicant’s supervisor has completed supervision training, the external panel score will be multiplied with a coefficient of 1.1.
STEP 2: Critical thinking assignment
Top candidates will be invited to participate in a critical thinking assignment in Helsinki on Monday, 23rd of October, 2023. The assignment evaluates problem solving, writing coherence, and ethical reasoning of the candidates. Students are given written materials (in English) and 90 minutes to prepare a 1–2-page essay based on the materials (in English). Materials cannot be read in advance. Applicants’ possible special needs will be taken into account.
More details about the assignment will be given to selected candidates approximately a week before the assignment.
Decisions
Top applicants will be ranked by adding together the score of the external panel evaluations (weight: 70 %) and the score of the critical thinking assignment (weight: 30 %). The applicants’ scores will be anonymized to ensure unbiased selection.
The maximum of one doctoral candidate per supervisor per application year can be appointed to the UH-funded doctoral candidate position.
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.
ILS received altogether 97 applications. All eligible application were evaluated by an external evaluation panel. The external panel decided to invite 19 top candidates to a critical thinking assignment that was arranged on October 23. The ILS board made the final decisions based on the combined scores from the external panel and the critical thinking assignment. The applicants were anonymized to ensure unbiased selection.
Giovanna Dashi, 3 years (supervisor Markku Varjosalo)
Olivia Dreilinger, 4 years, UH Science Foundation position (supervisor Claudius Kratochwil)
Onur Deniz, 2 years (supervisor Ville Hietakangas)
Matea Radešić, 4 years (supervisor Peter Sarin)
Two selected applicants did not give permission to publish their names.