PhD, Master’s & Postdoc Opportunities in Urban Planning in Switzerland

Doctoral research in structural dynamics and hybrid construction This doctoral project at the ZHAW Institute of Building Technology and Process investigates structural dynamics and vibration mitigation in hybrid steel–timber buildings. The research addresses how building components and connections behave under dynamic loads, with the goal of supporting safer, more comfortable and resource-efficient construction. The doctoral student will review research on vibrations in hybrid steel–timber struc...

The University of Basel is offering a PhD position in the Plant Microbe Interactions research group within the Department of Environmental Sciences. The project examines how complex soil microbiomes influence plant growth and defence, with a focus on the genetic and immune mechanisms that allow some plant genotypes to benefit from particular microbiome communities. As part of the Swiss National Science Foundation project “Decoding plant growth in response to complex soil microbiomes” , the docto...

The Adolphe Merkle Institute’s BioNanomaterials group at the University of Fribourg is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher for an interdisciplinary project focused on lung tissue engineering and the hazard assessment of exhaust emissions . The research aims to develop a toxicity screening approach to identify highly toxic pollutants from different emission sources and to support the ranking of fuel and engine technologies according to their hazard potential. This project is part of the Horizon ...

This PhD project is part of VERTICAF (Vertical Africa: Visualizing Urban Change, Negotiating Power, Designing Sustainable Cities) , a comparative research initiative on urban verticalization in African cities. Based at EPFL Lausanne and linked to partnerships with the Universities of Dakar, Kigali, and Luanda, the project examines how cities in Africa are changing through vertical growth and what this means for urban futures. The doctoral researcher will focus on developing and applying methods ...

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL is seeking a postdoctoral researcher for the HydraSense project within its Remote Sensing group and Land Change Science Research Unit. The project addresses how climate-induced drought affects forest ecosystems and how remote sensing can identify changes in tree water status and thresholds associated with drought-induced mortality. The postdoctoral researcher will develop and evaluate methods for retrieving vegetation water ...

Eawag – the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology – is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher for a two-year interdisciplinary study on the environmental analysis and fate of synthetic oligonucleotide therapeutics in aquatic environments. Synthetic oligonucleotides are an expanding class of nucleic-acid-based therapeutics. Chemical modifications that protect these compounds from enzymatic degradation in the human body may also influence their persistence, transformation, and bi...

The University of Bern is offering two fully funded PhD positions in plant community ecology and ecosystem functioning , beginning in March 2027. The project, “Effects of transient plant species on ecosystem functioning and soil microbial communities, using the PaNDiv grassland field experiment,” will investigate how temporary or transient plant species influence the functioning of grassland ecosystems and associated soil microbial communities. The research connects plant community ecology with ...

ETH Wohnforum – ETH CASE at the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich, invites applications for two doctoral researcher positions in the SNSF-funded project “From Homes to Habitats – Swiss Housing Cooperatives as Agents of Socio-Ecological Transition.” The project investigates how housing cooperatives in Switzerland can support more sustainable ways of living. It moves beyond their established role in providing affordable housing to examine innovative social, spatial, and ecological practices a...

ETH Zurich invites applications for a PhD project on robotic spraying and additive manufacturing for biocementation within the SNSF-funded DFabuLis: Digital Fabrication Using Living Systems project. The research explores how microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) can function as a controllable fabrication parameter. The doctoral researcher will develop a robotic fabrication process that deposits bacterial and cementation solutions, adapting existing deposition hardware and cr...