Digital Humanism Fellowship

Call for Applications 2025–2026

Objective 

The fellowship aims to bring eminent scholars from a wide range of academic fields to the Institute and allow them to pursue cutting-edge research on all aspects of the networked society. Each semester, a senior visiting fellow spends a one-month fellowship at the IWM. Additionally, two junior visiting fellows come to the Institute each semester, carry out their own research projects, and enjoy the possibility of an intensified collaboration and discussion with the senior visiting fellow. 

Candidates for junior visiting fellowships are expected to pursue research on digitalization’s intersection with societal, economic, and geopolitical dimensions, as well as other relevant research foci from the humanities and social sciences.

Junior visiting fellows will be invited to spend a period of three consecutive months at the Institute in autumn 2025. Generally, fellowships start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.

The visiting fellows will join the scholarly community and participate in the activities of the Institute.

Conditions 

Postdoctoral candidates––i.e., those who have defended their PhD by the date of the fellowship application deadline––will receive a stipend of EUR 3,300 per month; candidates currently pursuing their doctoral degree will receive a stipend of EUR 2,750 per month to cover accommodation, living expenses, travel, health insurance and any incidental costs related to their stay in Vienna. In addition, the IWM provides the fellows with office space including Internet access, in-house research and administrative facilities, as well as an in-house lunch and other services free of charge.

Eligibility 

Senior visiting fellowships are awarded by invitation only. 

Applicants to the junior visiting fellowship must currently pursue their doctoral degree or have obtained a PhD not longer than four years ago at the time of application. 

Application

Applications must be submitted through the IWM's online application form; we will be unable to consider applications sent via email.

Application materials consist of the following:

• a brief letter of motivation that addresses how the project would benefit from time at the IWM, the connection to the IWM’s mission and research, and concrete research/writing goals during the fellowship
• a project description (max. 550 characters)
• a project proposal (max. 7,500 characters incl. spaces) containing a) a description of the project’s objectives, b) a discussion of the current state of the art, c) methods, and d) a work plan
• a curriculum vitae including a list of publications
• two letters of recommendation from scholars familiar with the applicant’s academic work (Please note that the letters of recommendation need to be submitted directly by your referees within the application period. Your referees will receive an automatic email with a link to a webform after you have submitted your application.)

All application materials should be in English.

Important! Attached documents must be combined into a single PDF, as the online submission form only allows for one attachment. File names of attachments must use Latin characters. 

The deadline for applications is 21 January 2025.

Selection

The finalists are selected by a jury of experts. Applicants will be notified of the jury’s decision in the spring semester of 2025.

The jury is not required to publicly justify its decisions or provide applicants with individual feedback on their applications.

In Cooperation with

The Digital Humanism fellowship program is funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology.