The recently established “Cluster of Excellence: Microbiomes Drive Planetary Health” is looking for >30 postdoctoral research associates, >16 PhD students and >10 technicians to join our interdisciplinary research team at 8 institutions across Austria. We are looking for excellent, curious, and open-minded scientists to develop their potential in one of 17 work packages, spanning environmental (green), human (red) and methodological (blue) topics.

The concept of the Cluster of Excellence is to strategically link green, red, and blue projects to explore and understand fundamental principles of microbiomes across systems to strengthen planetary health.

For that, mechanisms of microbial interaction, perturbation and interventions will be explored in diverse ecosystems such as permafrost, plant-soil interfaces, human gut or wastewater using the full spectrum of state-of-the art methodologies applied in microbiome research, including field work and cultivation, work with model organisms/systems, or massive sequencing and bioinformatics.

Successful candidates (PhDs, PostDocs and technicians) will have full access to 10 staffed cutting-edge method facilities and will benefit from a unique and comprehensive mentoring and training program, including training in microbiome methods, transferable skills and entrepreneurship, as well as active career planning.

Recruits will be located at one of the partner institutions in Vienna, Graz, Linz or Lower Austria.

All PhD positions are fully funded for 4 years. The duration of advertised PostDoc and technician positions varies (up to 4 years).

Applications are projected to open in mid July.

Review of applications begins immediately after August 15th 2023 and continues until positions are filled.

Details on the projects (in both work packages and method facilities), positions, qualifications required, and application procedure can be found on our website www.microplanet.at