- European Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to researchers of any nationality who wish to engage in R&I projects by either coming to Europe from any country in the world or moving within Europe (12-24 months).
- Global Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to European nationals or long-term residents who wish to engage in R&I projects with organisations outside EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries (12-24 months outgoing phase in a non-associated Third Country & 12 months mandatory return phase to a host organisation in Europe).
- Boost your chances of success with ERA Fellowships! If you are applying for the European Postdoctoral Fellowship with a host institution in a widening country (such as Lithuania), and your proposal is not funded under the MSCA PF call due to budget limitations, it will automatically be resubmitted to the ERA Fellowships call, which will give your project an additional opportunity to receive support.
- Additional incentive available for researchers applying with host institutions in Lithuania! The Government of the Republic of Lithuania has transferred some European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funds to the Horizon Europe programme, enabling the European Commission to finance more well-evaluated MSCA PF projects submitted with Lithuanian institutions.
HOST INSTITUTION AND RESEARCH GROUP
Founded in 1579, VU combines centuries of academic excellence with a strong contemporary research culture. As the largest university in Lithuania, it comprises 15 academic units and brings together more than 3,400 academic staff and over 26,000 students. Its active research community is supported by extensive infrastructure, including research institutes, 3 university hospitals, the oldest academic library in the Baltics, 3 botanical gardens, and an astronomical observatory, creating a fertile environment for scientific discovery and innovation.
VU consistently ranks as the top university in the country, excelling in both education and a broad range of fundamental and applied research. Recognised among Central and Eastern Europe’s leading research institutions, it fosters cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research and maintains strong partnerships within a global academic network.
Our small but growing group based at the Institute of Biotechnology of VU Life Sciences Center primarily focuses on microbial evolution (particularly RNA viruses). We are predominantly a computational group and have access to Mathematics and Informatics Faculty high performance computational cluster but also perform some experiments and molecular diagnostics in lab space that belongs to us. Our group regularly assists and seeks assistance from colleagues at both VU Life Sciences Center and other institutions in Lithuania (Nature Research Center, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, etc.). Our group will typically help with sequencing data processing, phylogenetic analyses or data visualisations while we often seek help to do with handling mosquitoes, exploring protein structures, sequencing library preparation.
SUPERVISOR
Dr. Gytis Dudas has extensive experience with RNA virus phylogenetics, spanning analyses at both short time scales (e.g. genomic epidemiology in human outbreak settings) and long time scales (e.g. metatranscriptomic studies, virus discovery) in collaboration with international groups led by Andrew Rambaut, Kristian Andersen, Nathan Grubaugh, Trevor Bedford, CZ Biohub, etc. Dr. Dudas was one of the co-authors of Lithuania's SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance programme. In addition to 50 peer-reviewed publications, he has also co-authored a handbook on genomic epidemiology and is the main developer of baltic, a Python-based package for phylogenetic tree manipulation and visualisation with which he won the 2018 SciPy John Hunter Excellence in Plotting Prize. Dr. Dudas is an EMBO installation grantee, giving lab members access to training and networking opportunities.
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE AND PERSONAL SKILLS
Prior experience with basic scripting programming languages (e.g. R or Python) is a must, familiarity with phylogenetic methods would be good. Depending on the project, ability to process raw sequencing data, molecular biology expertise or knowledge of typical genomic epidemiology tools (e.g. BEAST, TempEst, etc.) may be needed too.
POSSIBLE RESEARCH TOPICS
- Our lab currently spends a lot of time recovering RNA viruses from publicly shared sequencing datasets for the purposes of genomic epidemiology style analyses of arthropod RNA viruses or for identification of previously unknown segments for segmented virus groups.
- We are collecting Culex mosquitoes in Lithuania over time to address specific questions about, and develop molecular tools for, Wuhan mosquito virus 6 and Culex mosquito virus 4.
- We are about to start generating metatranscriptomic data of individual arthropods which will require processing and analysis.
- There are traditional genomic epidemiology projects available too, e.g. on Lithuanian SARS-CoV-2 data since these data have not been analysed as a whole in detail.
ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS
- Supported fellows must be in possession of PhD at the call deadline (September 9, 2026).
- Have up to 8 years experience in research from the date of award of the doctoral degree at the call deadline.
- Fellows must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the beneficiary (for European Postdoctoral Fellowships), or the host organisation for the outgoing phase (for Global Postdoctoral Fellowships) for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the call deadline
Detailed information on the eligibility can be found on p. 81-83 of the MSCA Work Programme 2026-2027.
HOW TO APPLY?
- Contact the supervisor, Dr. Gytis Dudas (gytis.dudas@gmc.vu.lt), directly to express your interest in making a joint application based on your research interests. Do not forget to provide the following documents (cc to research@cr.vu.lt):
- Request a letter from your supervisor endorsing you as a candidate and send it to the Research Projects Office (research@cr.vu.lt).
- After receiving your supervisor’s endorsement, you can start preparing your MSCA PF project proposal. Please note that in order to prepare and submit your application on time (by September 9, 2026), you can seek support from VU Research Projects Office (research@cr.vu.lt).
For more information follow the link.
