PhD 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...

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 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...

This PhD project at EPFL’s Plant Ecology Research Laboratory (PERL) examines how forest canopy temperature and spectral properties track tree physiological responses to increasing atmospheric drought and soil water limitation. The research aims to understand how forests regulate canopy temperature and water use under drought stress and to develop approaches for mapping forest vulnerability from individual trees to large spatial scales. The work is highly interdisciplinary, combining plant ecophy...

The University of Bern is recruiting a PhD researcher for CONNECT: COupled Networks aNd Ecosystem sTability , a project investigating how spatial networks interact with networks of species interactions to shape ecological patterns and ecosystem functioning. Based in the Network Ecology Division at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, the project focuses on developing a general theory of stability and persistence in spatially coupled food webs. The research builds on an empirically grounded bi...

ETH Zürich is offering a fully funded PhD position in glaciology and glacial hazards through the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW) and the ICEFAL Project. The research focuses on cold hanging glaciers in the French and Swiss Alps, investigating how climate warming affects glacier stability and ice-avalanche risk. The doctoral project combines high-altitude fieldwork with glacier modelling and geospatial analysis, providing an interdisciplinary research environment at the i...