The VBC International Postdoctoral Program (VIP-2) sets new standards in postdoctoral training in the life sciences by providing talented young scientists with outstanding support to conduct ambitious research projects in an international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral environment. The program fosters scientific independence, encourages ground-breaking, career-making projects, and enables fellows to establish valuable contacts to academic and non-academic sectors.
The Vienna BioCenter (VBC) has a 38-year history of scientific excellence and training. Four academic institutes (IMP, IMBA, GMI, Max Perutz Labs) form the basis of this program. They are devoted to research in all areas of life sciences. Research topics range from structural biology to organismal biology, from gene expression to neurobiology, from microbiology to molecular medicine which encompass the full range of model systems from microbes, stem cells, plants, invertebrates to vertebrates. Together with more than 40 biotech companies, the VBC is Austria’s largest life sciences research center and a stellar example of an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral campus.
VIP-2 offers 3-year postdoctoral fellowships to candidates with backgrounds in biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, engineering, mathematics and computer science. The recruitment is a bottom-up procedure where fellows select two mentors and conceive a research project that forms the basis for the application. VIP-2 fosters scientific independence by selecting projects that have the potential to develop into distinct research lines and by providing fellows with access to outstanding scientific core facilities. VIP-2 fellows are mentored through a structured program that trains fellows for skills required to attain high-level positions in academic and/or private sectors. Finally, fellows can obtain direct insight into non-academic sectors through a secondment and are supported by an external advisory board with members from various non-academic sectors.
