Are you holding Master’s degree and looking for fully funded PhD positions? University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands 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 Responsible Human-AI Collaboration
Summary of PhD Program:
AI systems are increasingly used in high-stakes decision-making, such as healthcare and hiring, yet they often reinforce societal biases, leading to unfair outcomes. While human oversight is frequently proposed as a safeguard, research suggests that human involvement does not automatically lead to better and fairer outcomes—challenges such as cognitive overload, uncalibrated (dis)trust in AI, and unclear strategies for bias mitigation limit its effectiveness in practice.
Application Deadline: 1 November 2025
2. Fully Funded PhD Position in Novel magneto-resistive random access memory-based neuromorphic architectures
Summary of PhD Program:
The REACT MSCA Doctoral Network addresses these challenges by developing a neuromorphic platform that is inherently self-aware in terms of energy consumption, secure operation, and system reliability. As part of this initiative, 15 early-stage doctoral candidates (DCs) will be trained through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary program spanning material science, device physics, computer architecture, hardware prototyping, compiler design, simulation and emulation tools, as well as cybersecurity, reliability, and system verifiability.
Application Deadline: 1 November 2025
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3. Fully Funded PhD Position in Novel FeRAM/FeFET-based neuromorphic architectures
Summary of PhD Program:
The REACT MSCA DN Project: Self-awareness in humans is an innate capability, arising from the brain’s ability to process a multitude of sensory inputs. Emulating this functionality in electronic systems—commonly referred to as neuromorphic computing—holds the potential to create highly intelligent machines capable of supporting a wide range of everyday applications, from autonomous vehicles to smart navigation systems. However, realizing neuromorphic computing in practice presents significant challenges, particularly in the areas of energy efficiency, reliability, and security.
Application Deadline: 1 November 2025
4. Fully Funded PhD Position in Secure neuromorphic architectures
Summary of PhD Program:
Within the Faculty of Science and Engineering, a 4-year interdisciplinary PhD position is available at the Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. The candidate will become a member of Dr. Farhad Merchant’s Research Group working on Innovative Computer Architectures and Hardware Security, and will be supervised by Dr Farhad Merchant. The candidate will be part of the CogniGron center, a multidisciplinary initiative on neuromorphic computing. The position is funded by MSCA DN for 36 months and the remaining 12 months will be covered by other funding sources.
Application Deadline: 1 November 2025
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5. Fully Funded PhD Position in Sustainable ZnAlMg-X alloy coating for green steel applications
Summary of PhD Program:
ZnAlMg alloys coated steel belong to the most important materials for automotive components, building components, domestic appliances and electrical goods. Besides the improved corrosion resistance, however, these coating alloys generally suffer from a reduced formability and cracking resistance as compared to GI galvanized steel. Furthermore, it is unclear at this moment how these types of coatings will perform in application to the green steel.
Application Deadline: 5 October 2025
6. Fully Funded PhD Position in Microscopy studies of nanomedicine-cell (membrane) interactions
Summary of PhD Program:
In this project specifically, we aim to better understand the interactions between nanomedicines and the cell (membrane). Building upon previous work in the host group, the PhD candidate will use fluorescence microscopy to follow in real-time how nanomedicines engage with living cell membranes (and simpler model systems) and quantify these interactions. Similar studies can be performed for understanding the interactions that arise once the nanomedicines are inside cells.
Application Deadline: 16 September 2025
7. Fully Funded PhD Position in nanomedicine characterization and interactions with cells
Summary of PhD Program:
The vacancy is within the group of Associate Prof. Dr. Anna Salvati at the Department of Nanomedicine Drug Targeting of the Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy (GRIP), Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen. The research is aimed at the development of novel methods for nanomedicine characterization and to study their interaction with cells (e.g. uptake, intracellular trafficking and endosomal escape).
Application Deadline: 16 September 2025
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8. Fully Funded PhD Position in Robust Optimization & Control of District Heating & Cooling Systems under Uncertainties
Summary of PhD Program:
Decarbonizing heat is critical—the thermal sector accounts for approximately 50% of the EU’s final energy use. Electrification through heat pumps and EVs is already straining electricity grids, which are further challenged by the variability of renewables. Expanding grid capacity is both costly and slow. District heating and cooling networks (DHCNs) offer a smarter, more flexible alternative. Thanks to their significant thermal inertia and ultra-low-temperature operation, DHCNs can absorb surplus renewable energy, respond to market signals, alleviate grid stress, and provide flexibility.
Application Deadline: 16 September 2025
9. Fully Funded PhD Position in ML based implementation of constitutive behaviour of Stainless steel
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD project will develop model- and data-driven hybrid machine learning material models that capture the complex, nonlinear, path- and history-dependent behaviour of materials. The goal is to create material models based on advanced ML methods, and to seamlessly integrate these models into Finite Element Modelling (FEM) to replace expensive and time-consuming experimental procedures, thereby enhancing both time and cost efficiency in production pipelines.
Application Deadline: 15 September 2025
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10. Fully Funded PhD Position in How Rural Youth (Dis)engage with Debates on Sustainable Development
Summary of PhD Program:
Applications are invited for a fully-funded four-year PhD position that will explore how rural youth (ages 18–30) use both online and offline methods to make sense of sustainable development and the future of their village communities. It will do so through an interdisciplinary framework that builds upon theories and methods from cultural and rural geography and media literacy education. The project will use a participatory and longitudinal approach to (digital) ethnography in three regions: two in the Netherlands (the coastal region of Groningen and the deltas of Overijssel) and one in Belgium (Intercommunale Leiedal in Flanders).
Application Deadline: 14 September 2025
11. Fully Funded PhD Position in Environmental Heritage of the Afsluitdijk Area of the Netherlands
Summary of PhD Program:
The PhD candidate will study the impact of the Afsluitdijk on the ‘natural’ sea ecosystem of the Zuiderzee, as well as the landscape and sustainability perceptions of largely disconnected stakeholder communities, including scientists and local fisherpeople. The former will be achieved through a biomolecular-archaeological analysis, and the latter will be examined through archival research and interviews. The tension in between the reconstructed human and more-than-human experiences will be spatially and temporally analysed through an interactive map co-created by governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.
Application Deadline: 15 September 2025
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12. Fully Funded PhD Position in RNA Structural Ensemble Dynamics
Summary of PhD Program:
The PhD candidate will receive excellent training through cutting-edge research projects, advanced courses and training opportunities, complemented by workshops on generic research, transferable skills and teaching. As a PhD candidate, you are committed to conduct independent and original scientific research, to report on this research in international publications and presentations, and to present the results of the research in a PhD dissertation, to be completed within 4 years. PhD candidates are expected to contribute 10% of their overall workload to teaching.
Application Deadline: 15 September 2025
13. Fully Funded PhD Position in smart robotics for textile circularity
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD position is dedicated to advancing autonomous robotic manipulation and control within a textile-sorting cell, where garments arrive on a flat-belt conveyor and are dynamically grasped, unfolded, and oriented by multi-axis manipulators fitted with custom force-feedback grippers, and will work in close concert with a parallel sensing specialist collaborator to guarantee adequate integration of perception and action; advanced motion-planning and control algorithms, continuously refined via robotic digital twins, enable reliable handling of diverse, deformable textiles at cycle times below one second, while hyperspectral, NIR, Raman, and RGB sensors feed an edge-compute AI pipeline for real-time decision making that routes each item into recycle, reuse, or manual-review streams.
Application Deadline: 12 September 2025
14. Fully Funded PhD Position in AI-driven textile identification for circular economy
Summary of PhD Program:
Our project will make use sensing technologies (hyperspectral cameras, NIR and Raman sensors), and an edge-compute AI pipeline to sort used garments into recycle, reuse, and manual-review streams; this PhD project tackles the core challenge of designing and optimizing a high-throughput hyperspectral imaging system, fused with complementary spectroscopy data and AI, to automatically identify textile fabrics with high accuracy in real-world sorting conditions by (1) defining optimal spectral bands, spatial resolution, and acquisition speed; (2) developing and validating preprocessing pipelines
Application Deadline: 12 September 2025
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15. Fully Funded PhD Position in Critical Heritage Practices: Archaeobotanical Collections
Summary of PhD Program:
The vast archaeobotany collections of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) are from diverse countries and exist in varying states of organization, posing challenges related to administration, unstable storage conditions, and spatial constraints. Beyond logistical concerns, these collections raise critical questions regarding ownership, colonial legacies, and potential restitution, issues that have yet to be systematically addressed within the institute. The successful candidate will critically analyze the historical and contemporary dimensions of this collection, developing frameworks for responsible management, curation, accessibility, and engagement with communities.
Application Deadline: 2 September 2025
16. Fully Funded PhD Position in Depolarizing Climate Online Discourse with Argumentative Language Models
Summary of PhD Program:
We are seeking a candidate for a fully funded PhD position for the project DeCODA-LM – funded through the stimuleringsbeurs scheme of the Faculty of Arts. The project aims at developing tools using large language models (LLMs) for the correction of misinformation about climate change in social media. The successful candidate will develop innovative tools leveraging Computational Linguistics, Argumentation Theory, and Social Network Analysis to (1) investigate how climate misinformation contributes to political polarization and (2) assess whether AI-generated, argumentative-based corrections can reduce these effects.
Application Deadline: 2 September 2025
17. Fully Funded PhD Position in migration and environmental memory in Eastern Europe
Summary of PhD Program:
This fully funded PhD at the University of Groningen (NL) is an independent research project titled Where Rivers Speak and Landscapes Remember. The selected candidate will develop and carry out the project under the supervision of Dr. Senka Neuman Stanivukovic, Dr. Ksenia Robbe, and Dr. Florian Lippert. Together, they bring expertise in environmental humanities, memory studies, migration studies and IR, and support collaborative, creative, and interdisciplinary ways of working.