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 predoctorall 

47 Faculty of Psychology  

Job vacancy starting: 05/01/2025 (MM-DD-YYYY) | Working hours:  30,00  | Classification CBA: §48 VwGr. B1 Grundstufe (praedoc) 

Limited contract until: 

Job ID: 3814

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 influence:

The Faculty of Psychology includes the Dean’s office, a StudyServiceCenter and four Departments (see https://univie.ac.at/psychologie). The courses offered in Psychology includes a bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies. Currently there are nearly 4000 students enrolled; which are taught and supervised by 220 teachers, within more than 250 courses per semester.

We are seeking candidates for a praedoc position (“University Assistant”), at the Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology. The successful applicant will work in close collaboration with Prof. Claus Lamm (Chair of Biological Psychology, head of the SCAN-Unit) and his team at the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit (SCAN-Unit). The SCAN-Unit investigates a broad range of topics in the field of Social Cognitive Neuroscience, with a focus on empathy, prosocial behaviour, and more recently also environmental social neuroscience. We investigate these phenomena mainly in healthy neurotypical populations, but also incorporate clinical samples (autism, psychopathy, depression), and comparative aspects (social cognition across the lifespan, and in non-human animals) in our approach. Further information about current and past research of the lab can be found on our webpage https://scan-psy.univie.ac.at/research/

The position will be embedded in a thriving research environment offering various opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations, including a research hub dedicated to environment and climate research and a renowned research unit focusing on social neuroscience and computational social science (see http://ech.univie.ac.at and https://scan.psy.univie.ac.at for an overview). We offer a state-of-the-art research infrastructure involving direct access to several EEG labs and a research dedicated 3 Tesla MRI Center, including combined EEG/TMS and EEG/fMRI systems, rTMS, and TMS including neuronavigation, tDCS, mobile and stationary eye tracking, mobile and stationary psychophysiological recorders, a decision making laboratory (for social interaction experiments), and the necessary hard- and software for computational analysis methods. Teaching in line with the collective bargaining agreement is mandatory.

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.

Your future tasks:

We are looking for candidates with an M.Sc. degree in (Experimental, Cognitive, Social, or Biological) Psychology or a related field interested in doing a Ph.D. in Psychology, with a thematic focus on Social Environmental Neuroscience (see Lamm et al., 2024 https://tinyurl.com/socialenvneuro) and a methodological focus on combining human neuroscience methods with methods from computational social sciences. Advanced (for a Master’s degree) programming/stats skills (preferably Python, R) are mandatory, and first research experience in designing, running, analyzing (and possibly also publishing, or preparing to publish; see required application materials) empirical studies using human neuroscience methods and/or computational social science methods is of central importance. Applicants must have worked with fMRI and/or computational social science methods as part of their Master’s thesis, or related research work, have a strong background and knowledge of social neuroscience and environmental social psychology/sciences research, and be particularly interested in advancing our understanding of pro-environmental behavior and its neural bases. Applicants should also have a strong interest in being part of an interdisciplinary and international research team. Excellent oral and written English language skills are required. The working language of the lab is English. An autonomous work style and genuine curiosity are both required and supported.

This is part of your personality:

• Ability to work under pressure
• Problem solving skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work in a team

What we offer:

Work-life balance: Our employees enjoy flexible working hours and can partially work remotely. 

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

Good public transport connections: Your workplace 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.

Fair salary: The basic salary of EUR 3,714,80 (on a full-time basis) increases if we can credit professional experience.

Equal opportunities for all: We welcome every additional/new personality to the team!

It is that easy to apply:

• With your scientific CV including full academic record, list of publications (incl. submitted or in preparation, with at least one sample publication provided), and conference presentations
• With your letter of motivation and research interests (max. 450 words)
• With your outline of a possible doctoral thesis tailored to the profile of the position (max. 400 words/extended abstract)
• With your description of previous hands-on research experience and methodological skill (max. 250 words)
• Master Degree  /  Diploma
• Via our  job portal/ Apply now -  button

If you have any questions, please contact:

Claus Lamm  

claus.lamm@univie.ac.at

We look forward to new personalities in our team! 
The University of Vienna has an anti-discriminatory employment policy and attaches great importance to equal opportunities, the advancement of women and diversity. We lay special emphasis on increasing the number of women in senior and in academic positions among the academic and general university staff and therefore expressly encourage qualified women to apply. Given equal qualifications, preference will be given to female candidates.

University of Vienna. Space for personalities. Since 1365.

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​Application deadline: 04/16/2025 (MM-DD-YYYY)