Two Short-Term Fellowships for master's degree holders in the field of Magnetoreception and Navigation of Animals (m/f/x)

Oldenburg

Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

The DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1372 “Magnetoreception and Navigation of Vertebrates” at the University of Oldenburg offers

two short-term fellowships for master's degree holders and PhD candidates

to excellent researchers, who are interested in doing research within one dedicated project of the CRC.  Please see the available projects here: https://www.sfb1372.de/projects. These visiting research fellowships are intended to foster external collaboration and will allow external PhD students or students holding a master’s degree to work within the CRC framework. The fellowships are tax-exempt and will be granted ideally for 6 to 12 months, covering a basic amount of 1,468 EUR plus child support if applicable.

CRC 1372 “Magnetoreception and navigation in vertebrates: from biophysics to brain and behaviour”

The central aim of CRC 1372 is to achieve a comprehensive and multidisciplinary understanding of magnetoreception and vertebrate navigation all the way from the biophysical mechanisms to the natural behaviour of navigating animals, covering every step in between. To achieve this, we need to understand how magnetic cues are sensed, how magnetic information reaches the brain for processing, how multisensory navigation-relevant information is integrated in the brain, whether neural correlates of map and compass information exist beyond a lab environment of a few square metres, what the genetic basis of migration is, and how cue manipulations and different sensory strategies affect navigation behaviours and global migration patterns.

The CRC is structured into three overlapping and interconnected sections representing the three steps that the navigation-relevant signals take within the animal: Signal Detection (projects Sig01 to Sig06), Neural Processing (Neu01 to Neu06) and Navigation Behaviour (Nav01to Nav07). Further information on the CRC’s research and its projects can be found at  https://www.sfb1372.de/

The CRC hosts a state-of-the-art research infrastructure including a large interdisciplinary network of researchers, its own integrated research training group (IRTG), and funding opportunities for conference visits, summer schools, hosting international experts etc.

Your profile:

• Excellent master’s degree or equivalent, related to topics of the CRC, obtained outside of the future host institution
• Proficiency in English
• Convincing research idea within the subject area of the CRC (you can assign the project idea to one of the projects of the CRC)
• Motivation to participate in the workshops and seminars organized by the integrated research training group (IRTG)

Our expectations:

• Regular participation in workshops and seminars organized by the integrated research training group
• Participation in biannual CRC meetings
• Motivated work on individual research project and presentation of its results within the IRTG seminar series

Required documents for application:

• Statement of research interests and letter of motivation
• Curriculum vitae
• Certificate of master’s degree (or equivalent)
• Two references
• Desirable: project outline (with preferred time period). Applicants are advised to contact the CRC investigators with whom they would like to work and discuss the possibility of collaboration
• Desirable: check in advance your eligibility for scholarships in Germany (e.g. DAAD) in case you want to proceed with a PhD after this short-term fellowship

Starting date:

• Earliest: December 16, 2025
• Latest: June 1, 2026

The University of Oldenburg is committed to equality, diversity, inclusion and the compatibility of family and career. It is a signatory of the Diversity Charter and has been certified as a family-friendly university since 2004. We welcome applications from people of all nationalities, ethnic and social origins, religions, gender identities, sexual orientations and ages. Information about the University of Oldenburg can be found here https://uol.de/en.

For further information contact Tabea Hildebrand (Tel.: +49-441-798-3586, irtg_sfb1372@uol.de)

Please send your application documents in a single PDF file by email to irtg_sfb1372@uol.de.
Application deadline: October 15th, 2025.

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