"University Assistant Predoctoral"

The University of Vienna is a community of over 10,000 individuals, including approximately 7,500 academic staff members, who passionately pursue answers to the profound questions that shape our future. They represent individuals driven by curiosity and a relentless pursuit of excellence. With us, they find the space to try things out and unfold their potential. Are you inspired by their passion and determination? We are currently seeking a/an

University Assistant Predoctoral

50 Faculty of Life Sciences Startdate:15.03.2026 | Working hours:30 | Collective bargaining agreement:§48 VwGr. B1 Grundstufe (praedoc) Limited until:14.03.2030 Reference no.:5213

Explore and teach at the University of Vienna, where more than 7,500 academics thrive on curiosity in continuous exploration and help us better understand our world. Does this sound like you? Then join our accomplished team!

Your personal sphere of play:

A four-year (30 h) PhD position is available at the Division of BioInvasions, Macroecology & Global Change at the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research. A main research focus of the Division is understanding and predicting the effects of environmental changes on the distribution and diversity of biota. In addition, we study biodiversity-society interactions and the ramifications of biodiversity loss for human livelihoods.

We aim to expand our line of research with a new PhD-position on studying the drivers of plant diversity change.

The successful candidate will lead a project to study which drivers are responsible for changes of plant diversity at small spatial scales across spatio-temporal gradients. The study will be based on vegetation plot data in a transect encompassing four Central and Eastern European countries with different land-use histories and patterns of current land use. The PhD candidate will use historic plots from the last decades and will re-sample plots from a range of different grassland habitats. Data to characterize historic and current environmental and conditions of a set of global change drivers will be sampled in the field and complemented by data on environmental change drivers from relevant geospatial data.
This data set will be used to address the following research questions: 1) What are the trajectories of plant diversity change in grasslands and how do they differ among countries? 2) What is the scale of time-lags of responses of local plant diversity associated with changes in environmental drivers? 3) Have emerging drivers (e.g., climate change, alien species) recently become more important in driving changes of plant diversity than traditional drivers (e.g., land use, fertilization)? Finally, the candidate will advance existing approaches to develop a framework to attribute changes in species diversity to underlying drivers of environmental change.

Your future tasks:

The successful candidate will be responsible for leading this project in close collaboration with their supervisors, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Franz Essl, Dr. Bernd Lenzner, and Dr. Michael Glaser.

The candidate should have expertise in botany (species identification, botanical recording, plant ecology), environmental change, and good analytical skills. The candidate should have a deep interest in acquiring skills in relevant methods, and in getting familiar with the state of knowledge in the research field. Discussing and developing ideas with colleagues in the team-oriented work culture of the Division is expected. You will contribute to teaching and administrative tasks as circumscribed by the guidelines for praedoc positions at the University of Vienna.

This is part of your personality:

• Master’s degree in biology (or equivalent)
• Experience in the fields of plant ecology and biodiversity science
• Experience in field botany and knowledge of plant identification
• Experience in statistical methods and programming (preferably R)
• Experience and interest in the work with large-scale ecological and environmental data sets
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English (and preferably German)
• Ability and willingness to work in teams

Research fields:

Main research field / Special research fields / Importance
Biology - Plant ecology - SHOULD
Biology - Macroecology - SHOULD

Education:

Educational institution / Educational level / Special subject / Importance
University - Biology (Master) - SHOULD

Languages:

Language / Language level / Importance
English - Excellent knowledge - MUST
German - Excellent knowledge - SHOULD

Computer-Skills:

Type of computer skills / Specified computer skills / Importance Statistics
Statistical analyses - MUST Modeling - Ecological Modeling - SHOULD

What we offer:

Work-life balance: Our employees enjoy flexible working hours, remote/hybrid and/or part-time work (upon agreement).

Inspiring working atmosphere: You are part of an international academic team in a healthy and fair working environment.

Good public transport connections: Your workplace in the center of beautiful Vienna is easily accessible by public transport.

Internal further training & Coaching: Opportunity to deepen your skills on an ongoing basis. There are over 600 courses to choose from - free of charge.

Fixed-term contract and fair salary: The basic salary of EUR 3.776,10 (full-time basis) (14 times a year) increases if we can credit professional experience. The employment duration is 4 years. Initially limited to 1.5 years, the employment relationship is automatically extended to 4 years if the employer does not terminate it within the first 12 months by submitting a non-extension declaration.

Equal opportunities everyone:We look forward to diverse personalities in the team!

It is that easy to apply:

• Your applications including a letter of motivation (German or English), educational and scientific CV and a list of publications
• Master's degree or intended date of completion
• Contact details of two persons who could provide reference letters
• Via our job portal / Apply now - button

If you have any questions, please contact:

Franz Essl
franz.essl@univie.ac.at

Application deadline: 02/06/2026 (MM-DD-YYYY)