Title of the Project: Contested EU Foreign Policy in an Era of Geopolitics (EUFOG)
Funding programme: Horizon Europe. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Doctoral Networks
Grant Number: 101169280
Duration: 1 December 2024 – 30 November 2028

The DA invites applications for fully funded PhD positions as part of EUFOG, offering outstanding training opportunities in a dynamic research environment.

  • Full funding & no tuition fees: Successful candidates will receive full financial support, including tuition waivers.
  • International research exposure: The programme includes two secondments with leading international partners, providing valuable global experience. For more information, kindly see the PhD projects descriptions below.
  • Cutting-edge training: Candidates will benefit from top-tier academic and professional development opportunities.

Description
The doctoral network EUFOG will contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which the EU is reconsidering key tenets of its international role in the face of the geopolitical turn in international politics. The liberal international order, i.e. the collection of norms, institutions and power relationships that have defined the last decades of international political and economic relations, is undergoing major transformations. Although the final destination of these changes is still to be seen, the situation is shaped by a return of competition between great powers in a multipolar world (US, China, EU and Russia), facilitated further by growing geopolitical ambitions of many regional powers. These developments call for an overhaul of research about the international role of the EU. EUFOG will train a generation la scholars to enable them to address the politics (the political conflicts and debates), policies (decisions and measures) and partners (relationships and perceptions) associated with the ways in which EU foreign policy responds to these new international realities in a broad range of issue areas, from security to trade to human rights.

CONTACT

Prof. Patrick MÜLLER
Professor of European Studies

E EUFOG@da-vienna.ac.at

PhD projects positions

PhD project title Host Secondment 1
(Sep 2026 - Feb 2027)		 Secondment 2
(Sep 2027 - Feb 2028)
Project # 13 | The EU’s public diplomacy at time of crises and uncertainty. Cases on security and multilateralism.
(Application open)		 DA (Austria) UCanterbury
(New Zealand)
(ACADEMIC)		 ICDS (Estonia)
(NON-ACADEMIC)
Project # 14 | The Western security alliance under stress. The place of the EU.
(Application closed)		 DA (Austria) IBEI (Spain)
(ACADEMIC)		 CSDS-BSoG-VUB
(Belgium)
(NONACADEMIC)
Project # 15 | Great Powers and Multilateral Cooperation at the UN: Perceptions, Priorities and Outcomes.
(Application closed)		 DA (Austria) IBEI (Spain)
(ACADEMIC)		 FGV (Brazil)
(NON-ACADEMIC)

 

PhD projects descriptions

The EU’s public diplomacy at time of crises and uncertainty. Cases on security and multilateralism

Changing perceptions of the EU by third countries pose a challenge for the EU’s public diplomacy. This project accounts for EU’s public diplomacy and its evolution over time, particularly as perceptions of the EU change in an age of geopolitics, by focusing on issue areas in the broader domains of security policies and multilateral institutions. It also establishes the extent to which EU public diplomacy is responsive to and influential on perceptions about the EU. In other words, it identifies key narratives driving EU public diplomacy and its capacity to engage with narratives on the ground.

The Western security alliance under stress. The place of the EU

The West (broadly understood) is changing. It is shifting focus towards the Pacific, and it is being re-articulated by way of a plethora of formal and informal clubs and patterns of cooperation. This project addressed the role of the EU in this changing landscape, particularly as regards its inclusion and exclusion in various of those clubs, as well as its changing relationship with them, including with NATO as well. It assesses the changing relative importance and role of such formal and informal patterns of cooperation, as well as the designs for them advanced by EU member states. It draws out the implications of such changes for the future of the EU as a security actor.

Great Powers and Multilateral Cooperation at the UN: Perceptions, Priorities and Outcomes

The project will explore the relations of the EU with great powers, i.e. the US, China, and Russia, in multilateral cooperation at the United Nations. The project will study the perceptions of great powers of key issues of international security and the way the way they position themselves on these issues in the context of the United Nations General Assembly. In a second step, the project will identify institutions and mechanisms used by great powers for the coordination and amplification of their positions at the UN and the resources they invest. The project will shed new light on EU and great power perception and cooperation patterns at the UN in times of geopolitical change and growing pressure on the traditional, liberal order.

Application Process

The deadline for submitting your formal application for project # 13 is 31 March 2025 at 5:00 pm CET.

Please note that applicants must comply with the physical mobility rule: in general, you must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation (in this case Austria) for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before your recruitment date.

Please confirm that you comply with this requirement in your application.

For detailed information about the EUFOG Doctoral Network and the application process, please see the EUFOG Guide for Applicants.

To be considered for the MSCA Doctoral Fellowship, kindly apply via the da.application platform and select the "PhD project EUFOG, 2025-28". For more information on the regular application process of the Diplomatische Akademie Wien, visit www.da-vienna.ac.at/Application and see the step-by-step guide for the DA's regular PhD IIS programme.

Your online application via the da.application platform must, amongst others, include the following documents:

  • Curriculum vitae / resume, uploaded on the da.application platform.
  • It must clearly indicate your periods of education, qualifications achieved, work experience (if applicable), research experience (if applicable) and publications (if applicable).
  • Scanned copy of a valid ID (national ID or passport), uploaded on the da.application platform.
  • Scanned copies of your official academic transcripts, uploaded on the da.application platform.
    If those are not in English, they should be submitted together with a translation of these documents into English. Please include both your undergraduate and graduate degree certificates and transcripts. If you have not yet been awarded your Master’s degree, please submit a provisional transcript of your marks.
  • Scanned copy of the certificate proving your English proficiency, uploaded on the da.application platform.
  • A research proposal on the project you have selected of a minimum of 5 pages, uploaded on the da.application platform.
    If applicable also insert a hyperlink to EURAXESS where the project might be advertised.

In addition, kindly send the following documents to EUFOG@da-vienna.ac.at:

  • Completed EUFOG Application Form
  • Cover letter (2 pages maximum)
    The letter should explain your motivations for applying for an EUFOG scholarship and present an overview of your academic background, including the concrete experience, knowledge, skills and attributes that make you a good fit for the position(s) for which you are applying.
  • A sample of academic writing (e.g., journal article, research paper, conference paper, Master’s dissertation, etc.)