Employment as a doctoral researcher

Once a year, the doctoral programme opens a call for applications for university-funded doctoral researcher positions. The doctoral researchers selected for these positions complete their doctoral research employed by the university. Both current University of Helsinki doctoral researchers and new applicants planning on doctoral studies are eligible to apply for these positions.

Other ways of funding a PhD project is a salary paid by the supervisor or a personal grant from a private foundation applied by the doctoral candidate him/herself. Doctoral candidates may also fund their studies themselves or pursue their degree in tandem with work.
Instructions for applicants

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 

Findos-specific instructions

UH-funded positions

FINDOS shares at least two positions with a maximum duration of 4 years.

Applicants can apply for a 1-4-year position of full time research. Applicants are expected to apply for full years (12, 24, 36 or 48 months only). The minimum period is 12 months (*except doctoral candidates pursuing specialist degrees in medicine or dentistry) starting in 2024. The length of the employment contract is determined by the stage of the applicant’s doctoral thesis.

*Ex­cep­tion: Doctoral candidates pursuing specialist training in medicine or dentistry are allowed to apply for half of a UH-funded position (6 months a year). These 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.

 

Thematic positions

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.

University of Helsinki Research Foundation positions

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. 

All applicants working in the broad field of oral sciences research. We welcome applications from talented clinicians interested in careers as clinical academics or clinician scientists as well as basic researchers working in the field of oral sciences.

The applicant should complete a Licentiate of Medicine or Licentiate of Dentistry degree or a second-cycle degree (e.g. Master's degree) in a relevant field by the end of the year (2023), and obtain the right to pursue a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Medicine or Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki in the January 2024 application round at the latest. Knowledge of English is mandatory.

 

You can apply for the salaried positions in the doctoral programme if: 

  1. You already have the doctoral study right at the University of Helsinki.
    Please note the duration of the available positions below. 

OR

  1. You have an MSc, MD or equivalent degree. If you do not yet have the right to pursue a postgraduate doctoral degree, you must apply for a doctoral study right in the September 2023 application period or in January 2024 at the latest. In this case, please read carefully the instructions for doctoral study right applicants.

OR

  1. You can apply for the position if you have not yet graduated. However, a relevant academic degree (MSc, MD or equivalent) in a field suitable for thesis project must be completed and obtained before 31.12.2023. Note that you must apply for the study right in the January 2024 call of the doctoral program and that you must receive the right to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki within the 6-month trial period of the employment.

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.

Applications for a salaried position are submitted via the University of Helsinki recruitment system.  

You need to include the following attachments in this order to your application in the Doctoral Programme in Oral Sciences:

Mandatory attachments

  • Research plan
    • To ensure the equal treatment of applicants, you must use research plan structure presented in the template document (docx) and follow the maximum number of characters including spaces indicated in the template. The application may be rejected if the instructions are not followed.
  • CV
  • Copies of your degree diploma and transcript of studies (or transcript of studies only, if you have not graduated yet)

Mandatory if you do not have a doctoral study right

  • If you do not yet have a study right in the Doctoral Programme in Clinical Research, you must provide a signed supporting statement  from the supervisor(s) and the coordinating professor mentioned in the application. 

  • Link to supporting statement document (pdf)

  • You are required to find an appropriate research group and at least one supervisor. More details on supervisor arrangements, see the Admissions to doctoral studies page.

Mandatory for applicants pursuing specialist training and applying for a 6+6-month-position

  • Commitment letter
    • Doctoral researchers pursuing specialist training in medicine or dentistry who are applying for six-month positions are expected to complete their application with a letter of commitment indicating how the period of doctoral training will be integrated into clinical work. Collect the requested information and signatures, scan and attach the letter as a pdf file to your application before 14th of September 2023 at 23.59 EEST.
    • The forms (only for applicants pursuing specialist degree in medicine or dentistry):

 

Instructions for all

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. 

Preferably, please use the English application form. However, if you choose to complete the application form in Finnish or Swedish, please note that the research plan must be written in English.

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). 

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.

External evaluation

  1. Applications received in time and fulfilling the application requirements are evaluated by an external evaluation panel with representatives from all FINDOS universities as well as the Apollonia Finnish Dental Society.
  2. Each application is reviewed by three different evaluators (with no conflict of interest to applicants).
  3. Each evaluator individually ranks the applications.

Evaluation criteria

  • Scientific quality and ambition of the research plan
  • Innovative and cutting-edge methodology
  • Scientific output of the applicant
  • Feasibility of the thesis project and research environment.

Decision

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. 

Those appointed for the salaried positions must confirm their positions by 20 November, 2023.

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).  

A maximum of one doctoral researcher per supervisor per application year can be appointed to the UH-funded doctoral candidate position in the Doctoral Programme in Oral Sciences.

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 of admissions to doctoral studies.

Selections

Selections 2024-2027

 

Other funding options

Other ways of funding a PhD project is a salary paid by the supervisor or a personal grant from a private foundation applied by the doctoral candidate him/herself. Doctoral candidates may also fund their studies themselves or pursue their degree in tandem with work. Further information on the different funding options is available here.

You might also be interested in