PhD Program
ISTA has one intake to its PhD program per year. The application portal is typically available from the second half of October onwards.
The application portal for the 2025 intake of PhD students is now open.
Next application period: 2nd half of October until deadline.
Next deadline for applicants: January 8, 2025 2.59PM CET
Next deadline for referees: January 12, midnight CET
Next program program start: Sept 2025
Learn more on what the PhD program at ISTA has to offer here, for more details on the curricular set up consult this page
Inform yourself about how you can apply to the program and the process by taking a closer look at application page and the FAQs
Download the manual on how to complete the application form.
If you have further questions that are NOT answered in the resources above feel free to contact us.
ISTernship – ISTA Summer Fellowship
Our application portal is now open to applications for the ISTernship – ISTA Summer Fellowship 2025 Intake.
Application Submission Deadline: February 5, 2025 (15:00 CET)
Reference Submission Deadline: February 5, 2025 (15:00 CET)
Deadline for change requests on referee contact information: February 4, 2025 (15:00 CET)
Current students and recent graduates with bachelor’s or master’s degrees (or equivalent) from all disciplines of the natural sciences, mathematics, computer sciences, physics, chemistry, and any related interdisciplinary areas are eligible to apply. Applicants must have completed at least the second year or fourth semester of their bachelor’s studies before the respective start date. Applicants who graduated within a year from the program start date are also eligible to apply. That means applicants who graduated before May 15, 2024, are not eligible to apply for the program.
All short-term mobility programs between ISTA and Russia have been suspended. As a result, any applicants currently enrolled in universities located in Russia are ineligible to apply for the ISTernship call.
Before applying, please visit our ISTernship Fellowship page for more information. Please also review the FAQ page. You can find a list of participating professors/research groups for the 2025 intake here.
If you have any questions about the ISTernship Fellowship that are not answered by the FAQs, please contact us.
Scientific internships and research projects
Students who are either pursuing or have obtained a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree in the natural or computer sciences, mathematics or any related discipline are eligible to apply for a scientific intern position at ISTA.
Students who are enrolled in a Bachelor’s or a Master’s degree program which requires the completion of a research project or internship as a part of the curriculum can also apply for an intern position at ISTA.
You should review the list of research groups to identify the topic that can be a good fit to your intended research projects. You should then contact the respective group leader directly.