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1st Year

The scope of the first year at CeMM is to become familiar with the research and community at CeMM, to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to tackle the PhD, to develop the outline of the PhD project, and to obtain preliminary results.

  • Introductory Program:

Kick-off lectures and seminars: 4 weeks of exciting talks, seminars, and working groups to prime the students for their PhD. The talks are given by a curated selection of successful scientists and medical professors from the Viennese scientific, medical and biotechnology industry community and beyond. Additional seminars on topics relevant to develop into a successful, knowledgeable, critical, and responsible researcher are given by the CeMM Faculty and influential members of the Viennese research and science policy community.

Bioinformatics course: 2 weeks of hands-on training by the CeMM Bioinformatics group to acquire the basic knowledge and practical skills of programming, statistics, and of the main applications for data analysis.

Lab rotation: 4 weeks in a host-laboratory at CeMM (i.e. other than their own lab), with the aim of getting to know the scientists, their research, and to learn a method relevant for the future PhD project.

Project development: 2 weeks dedicated to getting familiar with the literature and developing ideas for their projects, before starting in the lab. Supported by workshops and group sessions.

  • Project proposal to Faculty: after 6 months at CeMM, the students present their PhD projects to Faculty to receive valuable input and feedback.
  • Mandatory course work, including basic seminars and propedeutics in molecular medicine, cell biology, and ethics, dissertation seminars and Journal Clubs.
  • Attendance of seminars at CeMM, featuring international, high-impact researchers, and dedicated meetings with speakers and PhD students.
  • End of year: first PhD committee meeting and submission of thesis proposal in line with the guidelines of the Medical University of Vienna.