- Do you want to work in a creative, free-minded scientific environment at the interface of life sciences and artificial intelligence, and translate your findings to improve human health?
- Are you excited to develop and use machine learning approaches to gain new understanding of the molecular physiology and pathology of humans and to innovate novel therapies?
- Do you want to join an international group of highly collaborative and successful colleagues that help you achieve your training and research goals?
- Are you a person who enjoys teamwork across disciplines and within a broader cultural and social context?
- Do you want to develop your innovation and entrepreneurship skills at the interface of AI/ML and biomedical research?
If yes, apply now of our 15-20 fully funded PhD positions here: https://apply.cemm.at/
AITHYRA, the new Research Institute for Biomedical Artificial Intelligence and CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine, both institutes of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, open a new call for PhD Students. Supported by the Medical University of Vienna and the Technical University of Vienna, the PhD program for life scientists and computational scientists/machine learning experts will start in January 2026. The goal of the PhD Program is to address real-world problems in inter-disciplinary computational, biomedical, clinical, and health research settings.
| We offer: a highly interactive introductory program in a supportive peer-group environment supervision by a top scientist and support of the entire Faculty of CeMM and AITHYRA a PhD degree awarded by the Medical University of Vienna or the Technical University of Vienna a dynamic and highly multidisciplinary international research environment full access to state-of-the-art technologies a generous scholarship, which covers salary, all research costs, university fees, work-related travel expenses for 4 years excellent employee benefits including full insurance coverage (health, accident, retirement), health care services, subsidized cafeteria a wide range of social, cultural, and sports activities organized by the institutes | You are: an exceptionally motivated PhD candidate with a keen interest in AI for life sciences, interdisciplinary teamwork and science that nurtures the precise, personalized, predictive and preventive medicine of the future fluency in English, with excellent written and verbal communication skills an early career researcher with publication record, presentation skills and commitment to research integrity equipped with excellent software skills and hands-on experience with deep learning and/or wet lab experience a candidate with (or obtaining by January 2026) a final degree in medicine, biology, chemistry, bioinformatics, computer science or a related scientific or technical field, such as engineering, physics, statistics, or mathematics (minimum requirement is a four-year Bachelor’s degree with honours) |
The research area
The AITHYRA-CeMM PhD Program will focus on the thematic areas of infection, immunity, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, network medicine, patient-derived organoids, bioengineering and aging research. Particular emphasis will be placed on the integration of multimodal biological data, development of deep learning and large language models for biological discovery or graph-based methods for molecular and cellular networks. The technological foundation further consists of systems biology, virology, high-throughput genetics, genomics and proteomics, molecular and cell biology, high content automatic imaging, chemical biology, and organic chemical synthesis.
The program
Our goal is to enable and empower AI/ML and life science students with the ability to successfully design, execute, manage and explain a research project in modern AI-driven molecular medicine, through a strongly participatory and interactive program. The program is conceptualized in three ‘modes’: collect, connect and contribute. These will guide you through scientific excellence in data generation and validation to responsible and professional scientific citizenship.
The host institutes
AITHYRA and CeMM are sister institutes with identical principles of excellence, competitiveness, internationality, as well as mentoring and training, operating in a unique mode of super-cooperation. Biology is connected with medicine, experiments with computation, discovery with translation, and science with society and the arts.
The mission of Aithyra is to fundamentally transform biomedical science by embedding artificial intelligence as a co-pilot throughout the entire scientific process-from hypothesis generation and experimental design to biological interpretation and therapeutic innovation. Through a coherent integration of AI/ML across biological scales, the goal is to improve our understanding of the root cause of diseases, their diagnosis and the conceptualization of novel therapeutic strategies while inspiring new innovations in AI/ML. In order to create sufficient amounts of data to support AI applications, Aithyra will invest in experimental automation through a robotics laboratory infrastructure. While this research program is broadly applicable in life sciences, the focus will be on cancer, immunology, infectious diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Aithyra is co-led by Michael Bronstein (Scientific Director for AI), Georg Winter (Scientific Director for Life Sciences), and Anita Ender (Managing Director) and located at the Marxbox on the Campus of the Vienna Biocenter. https://www.oeaw.ac.at/aithyra
The mission of CeMM is to achieve maximum scientific innovation in molecular medicine to improve healthcare. At CeMM, an international and creative team of scientists and medical doctors pursues free-minded, basic life science research in a large and vibrant hospital environment of outstanding medical tradition and practice. CeMM’s research is based on post-genomic technologies and focuses on societally important diseases, such as immune disorders and infections, cancer, metabolic disorders, and aging. The goal of CeMM is to pioneer the science that nurtures the precise, personalized, predictive, and preventive medicine of the future. CeMM is co-led by Giulio Superti-Furga (Scientific Director) and Anita Ender (Administrative Director) located right at the heart of the Medical Campus Vienna, one of the largest in Europe, door-to-door with the Medical University of Vienna, the Vienna General Hospital (AKH). https://cemm.at/
Vienna is repeatedly ranked as the world’s best city to live in and is a United Nations city with a large international, English- speaking community. The official language at AITHYRA and CeMM is English, and 50 different nationalities are currently represented at the institutes.
For more information about applying to the PhD Program please visit the website:
15-20 fully funded PhD fellowships available in Vienna, AT in AI/ML and Life Sciences
Deadline for applications:
10 September 2025 https://apply.cemm.at/
Are you a computer scientist, engineer, physicist, mathematician, medic, biologist, chemist, bioinformatician, or have a degree in a similar subject and would like to work on an exciting research project to improve human health?
We offer:
4 years funding and employment contract (including all research costs and health insurance),
a highly interactive introductory training program,
full access to state-of-the-art technologies,
supervision by top scientists and support of the entire Faculty at CeMM and AITHYRA,
a PhD degree awarded by the Medical University or the Technical University of Vienna,
an international program in the heart of a scientifically active and culturally vibrant European city!
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