Doctoral studies and research careers in Europe
PhD positions in Europe are typically structured as funded doctoral employment within a university or research institute. Most positions are advertised internationally and conducted in English, particularly within STEM, life sciences, social sciences, engineering, and interdisciplinary research fields.
In many European countries, doctoral candidates are employed on fixed-term contracts and receive a salary rather than paying tuition fees. Countries such as Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria commonly offer PhD positions as salaried research roles within structured research groups and doctoral programmes.
Many doctoral opportunities are connected to national research councils, European Union programmes such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and institutionally funded research projects. PhD candidates often work within collaborative research environments linked to university hospitals, technical universities, and interdisciplinary research centres.
Leading European institutions recruiting doctoral researchers include universities such as Karolinska Institutet and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, Technical University of Munich (TUM) and RWTH Aachen University in Germany, TU Wien in Austria, and research-intensive universities in the Netherlands.
This page lists active PhD positions across Europe. You can refine your search by country, discipline or institution to find relevant doctoral opportunities.
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