Are you holding Master’s degree and looking for fully funded PhD positions? University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium invites online application for multiple funded PhD Programs / fully funded PhD positions in various research areas.
Candidates interested in fully funded PhD positions can check the details and may apply as soon as possible. Interested and eligible applicants may submit their online application for PhD programs via the University’s Online Application Portal.
1. Fully Funded PhD Position in economics and development
Summary of PhD Program:
This call is part of the FWO project “Aversion to Income and Lifespan Inequality: Theory and Evidence from 16,000 survey participants in 8 Countries” led by professor Olivier Sterck. This project starts from the observations that global inequality is high. It aims to address three important knowledge gaps. First, there is little empirical evidence on the extent to which people dislike inequality in incomes and in lifespan, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Second, knowledge is limited on how people balance inequality within and between groups when inequality affects groups differently (e.g. gender, race). Finally, little is known on how people make trade-offs between incomes and longevity and how this should be incorporated in normative frameworks.
Application Deadline: 5 June 2025
2. Fully Funded PhD Position in applied mathematics: statistics
Summary of PhD Program:
The Department of MATHEMATICS in the Faculty of SCIENCE is looking for a full-time (100%) doctoral scholarship holder in the field of Applied Mathematics: Statistics
You will work actively on the preparation of a PhD thesis in the field of statistics and machine learning.
You will publish scientific articles related to the research project.
You will carry out a limited number of teaching and research support tasks for applied mathematics.
Application Deadline: June 12, 2025
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3. Fully Funded PhD Position in tree phenology and forest ecology
Summary of PhD Program:
You will work on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in the field of tree phenology and forest ecology. This project will investigate the drivers of the timing of spring budburst in deciduous tree species of temperate forests. In particular, you will study the impact on budburst of non-climatic factors, such as soil fertility and tree interactions (e.g. competition in mono-specific stands, facilitation in mixed stands). Moreover, you will test whether these factors can interact with climatic drivers (e.g. temperature, light). To achieve this, small scale experiments on young trees will be combined with observations from experimental plantations, monitoring of natural forests and the analysis of a new database that will combine budburst data to climatic- and non-climatic factors.
Application Deadline: 9 June 2025
4. Fully Funded PhD Position in hyperspectral fluorescence imaging and detailed optical spectroscopy of the interaction of carbon nanotubes with chiral molecules adsorbed on or encapsulated within SWCNTs
Summary of PhD Program:
You will work actively on the preparation of a PhD thesis in the field of Experimental Physics. You will be embedded in the TSM2 research group and will be co-supervised by Prof. Sofie Cambré (Physics) and Prof. Wouter Herrebout (Chemistry) within a project funded by FWO. The focuses on the development of chiral fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging. The project not only involves the spectroscopic characterisation and instrument development but will also require you to prepare your own samples (filling of carbon nanotubes, structure sorting of carbon nanotubes), hence experience in chemical preparation techniques is a plus.
Application Deadline: 2nd of June 2025
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5. Fully Funded PhD Position in Greenhouse gas balance of tidal and riverine wetland ecosystems
Summary of PhD Program:
Tidal and riverine wetlands are highly valued ecosystems, among others for nature-based climate mitigation through the sequestration of CO2 into carbon in the wetland vegetation and wetland soil. However, many wetland areas have been historically converted in human land use, leading to the loss of the CO2 sequestration function. Nowadays, projects are carried out to (re-)create tidal and non-tidal wetlands, such as in the Schelde river basin (Belgium) through the Flemish Sigmaplan (https://www.sigmaplan.be/en). Yet it remains to be proven how efficient such newly created wetlands are for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, as they can be a sink for CO2 but also a potential source for CH4 and/or N2 This will be the key research question addressed in this PhD project.
Application Deadline: June 1 2025
6. Fully Funded PhD Position in the field of novel bio-electrochemical sensing strategies
Summary of PhD Program:
The overall goal of this PhD is to develop novel biosensing strategies that will pave the way to the construction of affordable, robust, and user-friendly platforms. The main focus will be on amplified singlet oxygen-based photoelectroanalysis for nucleic acid-based biomarkers in healthcare applications (e.g. cancer diagnosis and infectious disease diagnostics). This PhD will contribute to the efforts of getting insight into yet unexplored biosensing and signal amplification strategies.
Application Deadline: Open until filled
7. Fully Funded PhD Position in the field of molecular quenching strategies for photoelectrochemical sensing
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD project aims to fundamentally explore the quenching dynamics of photosensitizers by various compounds and (nano)materials. The research will investigate both direct and indirect quenching strategies, with a particular focus on singlet oxygen production and suppression in photoelectrochemical sensing applications. By evaluating different quenching mechanisms (e.g., proximity-based singlet oxygen quenching and wavelength-specific energy transfer), this project seeks to develop novel insights into molecular quenching dynamics. This fundamental research project will have potential impact in sensing concepts for multiple biomolecules, including nucleic acids, proteins, and other clinically relevant analytes.
Application Deadline: Open until filled
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8. Fully Funded PhD Position in the field of CRISPR/Cas-mediated photoelectrochemical biosensors
Summary of PhD Program:
A-PECS at the Department of Bioscience Engineering in the Faculty of Science is looking for a full-time (100%) doctoral scholarship holder in the field of CRISPR/Cas-mediated photoelectrochemical biosensors. The overall goal of this PhD is the development of photoelectrochemical biosensors integrating CRISPR/Cas technology. CRISPR/Cas, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2020, enables the ultra-specific detection of DNA/RNA biomarkers in clinical samples. The synergistic combination of CRISPR/Cas with fast and easy-to-use photoelectrochemical detection technologies will enable the creation of the next generation of point-of-care biosensors. This PhD will contribute significantly to the design and development of new diagnostic technologies with a real clinical impact.
Application Deadline: Open until filled
9. Fully Funded PhD Position in biomarker discovery in neurological disorders
Summary of PhD Program:
Growing evidence suggests that allergic immune responses in the gut can influence the brain, but how these signals are transmitted and whether they contribute to brain disorders remains unclear. This project explores how food allergy during early life alters the gut microbiota, reprograms immune cells, and promotes their trafficking to the brain, ultimately triggering neuroinflammation. The PhD student will help uncover the molecular and cellular pathways linking the allergic gut to the inflamed brain, and how these pathways shape disease risk later in life.
Application Deadline: Open until filled
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10. Fully Funded PhD Position in Molecular and Computational Neurogenomics
Summary of PhD Program:
The overarching goal of this proposal is to understand why and how dysregulation of omnipresent and constantly expressed ARS proteins leads to dying-back neurodegeneration and affects specifically the peripheral neurons (PNs). This neuronal population contains the most polarized cells in our body and their sophisticated morphology and function render them highly susceptible to degeneration. The preliminary data generated in-house as well as the available public data suggest mechanisms involving genetic, epigenetic and chromatin organisation factors governing the cell-type specific response to ARS mutations. Therefore, an integrative genome-wide cis-regulatory network analysis approaches, developed and employed in the Malysheva Lab, are required to reveal these mechanisms.
Application Deadline: Open until filled
11. Fully Funded PhD Position in Intraoperative assessment of resection margins in breast cancer surgery by Raman spectroscopy – BE‐RIGHT
Summary of PhD Program:
You will perform research in the field of pathology and breast cancer detection. This project aims to develop and validate a protocol for intraoperative assessment of resection margins in breast cancer surgery, based on a novel Raman spectroscopic technology (IOARM-Raman) that will fit in the surgical work flow. To determine the potential improvement of resection margin status in breast cancer surgery, an observational study comparing IOARM-Raman to local standard-of-care surgical procedures will be executed.
Application Deadline: Open until filled
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12. Fully Funded PhD Position in molecular exercise physiology
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD project aims to uncover the unexplored role of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in systemic and peripheral metabolic and inflammatory adaptations following exercise (in obesity). Methodological approaches include 1) a murine (diet-induced obesity) model, 2) acute and chronic exercise paradigms, 3) treatment with peripherally restricted enzyme-based eCB modulators, 4) multi-tissue molecular analyses and 5) functional assays of in vivo metabolism and exercise capacity. This project will generate a multi-tissue eCB atlas in response to acute exercise & obesity, taking into account sexual dimorphism, and fundamental insights in the mechanisms that underlie acute and chronic metabolic and inflammatory exercise adaptations (in obesity).
Application Deadline: 31 July 2025
13. Fully Funded PhD Position in pathology and proteomics
Summary of PhD Program:
You will work actively on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in the field of Medical Sciences. More specific, you will work on the validation of predictive peptide biomarkers to classify non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients based on their response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. You will work both at the pathology department of Antwerp University Hospital (UZA), where you will be responsible for the inclusion of the patient samples, and the UAntwerpen Centre for Proteomics, where you will analyse lung biopsies using mass spectrometry imaging. The imaging data, together with all other relevant clinical and omics data, will serve as input to generate a statistical prediction model, that will be built together with the bioinformatics team.
Application Deadline: 2nd June 2025
14. Fully Funded PhD Position in computational linguistics and crosslingual emotion detection
Summary of PhD Program:
You will work actively on the preparation of a PhD thesis in the context of the research project ‘Emotions without borders: Studying the verbalization and automatic detection of emotions across languages’. In this project, you will investigate and compare emotional language use in different languages using methods from computational linguistics. The focus is on automatic emotion detection in text, with special attention to crosslingual differences in emotion verbalization and to how multilingual models deal with such differences.
Application Deadline: 16 June 2025
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15. Fully Funded PhD Position in linguistics (pragmatics and webcare)
Summary of PhD Program:
You will work actively on the preparation of a PhD thesis in the context of the research project ‘Webcare through the eyes of the bystander: A cross-linguistic comparison of pragmatic-rhetorical features in hotel review-response interactions’, funded by the FWO – Research Foundation Flanders. Your focus will be on the analysis of multilingual online customer service communication. You will participate in a cross-linguistic study on a multilingual corpus of hotel reviews and the corresponding responses. You will investigate cross-linguistic features and rhetorical strategies of hotel interactions in these languages. Furthermore, you will conduct experimental research to identify which features and strategies are perceived as positive or negative by potential hotel guests.
Application Deadline: 16 June 2025
16. Fully Funded PhD Position in linguistics (computational linguistics and webcare)
Summary of PhD Program:
You will work actively on the preparation of a PhD thesis in the context of the research project ‘Webcare through the eyes of the bystander: A cross-linguistic comparison of pragmatic-rhetorical features in hotel review-response interactions’, funded by the FWO – Research Foundation Flanders. Your focus will be on the automatic analysis of multilingual online customer service communication. You will participate in a cross-linguistic study on a multilingual corpus of hotel reviews and the corresponding responses. You will investigate cross-linguistic features of hotel interactions in these languages, using computational methods. Furthermore, you will investigate possibilities to develop generative AI systems that can generate automatic responses, tailored to the linguistic and cultural context.
Application Deadline: 16 June 2025
17. Fully Funded PhD Position in health communication in birth care, taking a linguistic ethnographic and interactional linguistic angle
Summary of PhD Program:
You will work actively on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in Linguistics on communication and language in birth care. The central research question of this project is how people that are pregnant or have just given birth talk about and communicate when giving birth, in the socioculturally diverse context of the city of Antwerp. For this project, you will observe and interview participants during pregnancy and during and after labour and birth. You will analyse this data set using qualitative linguistic methods, under the supervision of prof. Jana Declercq.
