The University of Helsinki Doctoral Schools invites applicants for three-year doctoral researcher positions. The positions are part of the national pilot for doctoral training and are in the different pilot projects. The spring application period was open in April.
The autumn call will be organised in selected pilots between 27 August and 9 September, 23:59 local Helsinki time (East European Summer Time, UTC+3).
There are 64 positions open in the following consortia:
| iCANDOC | 44 positions |
| Quantum | 5 positions |
| FCAI | 4 positions |
| CIMANET | 4 positions |
| Software Engineering | 3 positions |
| SusTra | 2 positions |
| EDUCA | 1 position |
| IMMUDOCS | 1 position |
Note: Other pilots do not have open positions in the autumn call.
Selected applicants are employed by the University of Helsinki. They are subject to the annual workload system used in Finnish universities; the annual workload is 1,612 hours per academic year. More information about salary, and other further details concerning the employment relationship are available in the call for applications (available when the call is open). The positions start (in principle) on 1 January 2025.
Applications must be prepared in accordance with the instructions below. Please notice that if you are applying for a position in FCAI, read first the consortium-specific instruction on the bottom of the page.
Please notice that these instructions apply for the applications for the three-year pilot positions. If you are applying for a university-funded doctoral researchers from a doctoral programme, please see these instructions. In addition to the two pilot applications, it is possible to submit one application for the university-funded doctoral programme positions.
If you question about the application process, please contact the doctoral school doctoralpilot@helsinki.fi
The application together with the required attachment should be submitted via the electronic recruitment system of the University of Helsinki. The link to the application form can be found on this website at the beginning of the application period.
Applications must be submitted by 23:59 local Helsinki time on 9 September 2024. Only applications submitted within the designated application period will be processed. Applicants are advised to log into the electronic system well before the end of the application period to ensure that they are familiar with the system. If applicants experience any difficulties with the system, they should contact the Doctoral School (doctoralpilot@helsinki.fi) before the deadline for applications. The applications cannot be modified after the deadline.
In the autumn call you are expected to have a supervisor for your project.
Applicants are required to have:
Please see the complete list of the required documents below.
Applications should be submitted via the electronic application form and complemented with the attachments listed below. Please combine all required attachments, including your CV, into a single PDF document in this order:
Please title this document as Surname_application and upload it in the application system under the CV section. You must use the templates provided for your attachments and follow the given character limits.
No other documents (e.g., letters of recommendation, statements on dissertations, writing samples, or publishing contracts) will be considered in the selection process.
The application documents (research plan, supervision plan, motivation letter and CV) must be written in English. Incomplete applications will not be processed. Applicants will be disqualified if the character limits have been exceeded or if the attachments are in the wrong format/not according to the templates.
Applications for the positions are submitted via the University of Helsinki recruitment system. Links to application forms/call text can be found on the bottom of this page when the call opens.
You need to fill in the following information in the application form:
Information about the applicant’s gender is for statistical purposes only. As this information has no influence on the application procedure, applicants may choose to not disclose this information. Information about the applicant’s nationality is also for statistical purposes. Again, this information has no influence on the application process.
Please combine all required attachments, into a single PDF document in the order indicated below, title this document as Surname_application and upload it in the application system under the CV section.
The application documents (research plan, supervision plan, motivation letter and CV) must be written in English.
The research plan must be drawn up in collaboration with your main supervisor. You must use the research plan structure presented in the template (Word-file) and follow the maximum number of characters including spaces indicated in the template. The applicant will be disqualified if the instructions are not followed.
In the template, leave the titles and subtitles and remove all instructions text in italics.
Layout: Font ARIAL/Calibri size 11 and row min 1,15 (or similar if not using Word).
The maximum number of pages is five using the above-mentioned layout. No pages after the limit will be read and evaluated.
The supervision plan must be drawn up in collaboration with your main supervisor and signed by both of you. You must use the supervision plan structure presented in the template (Word file). The applicant will be disqualified if the instructions are not followed.
In the template, leave the titles and subtitles and remove all instructions text in italics.
Layout: Font ARIAL/Calibri size 11 and row min 1,15 (or similar if not using Word)
The maximum number of pages is two using the above-mentioned layout. No pages after the limit will be read and evaluated.
You must use the motivation letter structure presented in the template (Word file). The applicant will be disqualified if the instructions are not followed.
In the template, leave the titles and subtitles and remove all instructions text in italics.
Layout: Font ARIAL/Calibri size 11 and row min 1,15 (or similar if not using Word)
The maximum number of pages is two using the above-mentioned layout. No pages after the limit will be read and evaluated.
CV must follow the template of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK. The applicant will be disqualified if the instructions are not followed.
Layout: Font ARIAL/Calibri size 11 and row min 1,15 (or similar if not using Word)
Copies of your Master’s degree (or equivalent) certificate and transcript of records (or transcript of studies only, if you have not graduated yet).
It is recommended that you upload English language versions of your educational documents if you have them. Please notice that at this point, official translations are not required, but you may need to submit them once you apply for a study right.
Applications are evaluated in different rounds. The first round is an eligibility check where it is checked that the applicant has submitted all the required documents and is eligible to apply.
The second round is a competency assessment round. In this round, the applicants who meet the eligibility criteria, are evaluated in:
Please notice that if you have completed the test during the spring application round, you do not need to redo it.
According to the evaluations of the competency assessment, selected candidates who qualify for the scientific evaluation round, are evaluated based on:
The scientific evaluation is done by an external evaluation panel. In addition to this, the applications are evaluated by the pilot consortia and doctoral programmes in order to assess the thematic fit the pilot and the doctoral programme. The evaluation by the doctoral programme is done only for those applicants who do not yet have a study right. Thematic suitability to a doctoral programme is not used as a selection criterion.
The results of the competency assessment are used in the overall assessment.
Final decisions are made by a selection board nominated by the doctoral school.
Please find a preliminary timetable for the selection process below.
If you are applying for a position in the iCANDOC Pilot, please also take into account the pilot specific instructions.
If you are applying for a position in the EDUCA Flagship Doctoral School Pilot Project, please also submit your main supervisor's CV in addition to the above-mentioned attachments. The Main Supervisor’s CV is about 2-4 pages large document and prepared according to the guidelines of TENK. In The CV, supervision competence and experiences are emphasized.
In the research plan, please consider the also the following:
In the supervision plan, please also consider the following:
If you are applying for a position in the FCAI Finnish Doctoral Program Network in Artificial Intelligence, please notice that you need to submit your application also to the FCAI's own call.
Also, in stead of the above mentioned attachments, you can submit to our recruitment system the same required attachments as in the FCAI's call: motivation letter, CV, list of publications (if applicable) and transcript of master’s/bachelor’s studies and the degree certificate of your latest degree.
More information about FCAI's call and application instructions can be found on their website.
If you are applying for a position in the, please see a list of supervisors and their research projects on the Quantum pilot consortium's website.
If you are applying for a position in the Quantum-consortium, please notice that in stead of the template for the research plan presented in the application instructions, you can submit the one-page research plan you have already written.
Supervisors must demonstrate their prior experience and publications in the field of the ImmuDocs Pilot: immunology, immunology-based drug development, and immunology-based diagnostics. The research can be basic, translational, and/or clinical.