Our FWF supported doctoral program is an inter-institutional consortium of twelve scientists, nine full collegiates and twelve associated collegiates. Our mission is to educate excellent PhD students to become independent researchers with a competitive professional profile, by fostering independence, inquisitive thinking, and scientific rigor.

With multidisciplinary PhD projects, excellent research infrastructure, a structured training program and committed advisors the program offers all components necessary for a successful PhD and career start.

We study how signaling mechanisms impact homeostasis in cell-free, cell-based, and organismal systems, with a particular focus on the highly topical role of autophagy in different processes and studying autophagic mechanisms in depth.