PhD Program

International PhD Program in AI/ML, Molecular Technologies and Systems Medicine

• 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? 

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 and will be repeated twice a year. 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 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 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. 

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.

More information: https://apply.cemm.at/