Visiting Fellowship for PhD Proposal Development in Migration Studies and Informal Work University for Continuing Education Krems in Austria

Visiting Research Fellowship opportunity at the University for Continuing Education Krems for a prospective PhD student in Migration Studies with a focus on informal work, precarious work, labour regimes, welfare regimes, and migration-related labour market dynamics.

The Department for Migration and Globalisation is inviting recent graduates in a social science discipline to apply for a short-term research fellowship running between mid-June 2026 and mid-September 2026. The fellowship is designed to help the selected candidate develop a strong PhD proposal for the DOC funding scheme of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

The thematic focus is broad but clearly centered on the transformations of work and the regulation of informal or underdeclared work. Suggested angles include platform work, algorithmic management, the gig economy, non-standard work, transnational work arrangements, taxation, welfare regulation, labour protections, and policy interventions. The call particularly welcomes proposals at the intersection of migration, welfare, and labour regimes, especially in relation to refugees, persons under subsidiary protection, and Ukrainians under temporary protection.

The fellowship is embedded in the REFAIR project, Regulating the Grey Zone: Fairness, Informality, and the Boundaries of Work, 2026–2030, funded by Horizon Europe. The successful applicant will work closely with Assoc.-Prof. Albert Kraler and other scholars in the department, receive feedback on the proposal, and present the initial concept in a seminar.

Eligibility highlights: applicants should hold a very good master’s degree in a social science discipline, have completed it within the last two years (after 1 July 2024) or be finishing by September, have experience with quantitative and/or qualitative methods, and demonstrate very good English (minimum C1). German is desirable but not required. Applicants must also satisfy the DOC scheme’s excellence criteria.

Funding/support: the fellowship is largely virtual, but the department may support a period of physical presence in Krems with up to EUR 2000. If the subsequent funding application is successful, the candidate is expected to enter the PhD program in Migration Studies in Winter term 2027/28 and receive a three-year fixed-term employment contract starting prospectively in October 2027.

Application deadline for the fellowship: 15 June 2026. The proposal for the DOC scheme is due on 15 September 2026.