Are you holding Master’s degree and looking for fully funded PhD positions? Leiden University, Leiden, 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 Cryptographic Hardware and Design Automation
Summary of PhD Program:
We are looking for a PhD student to work on Cryptographic Hardware and Design Automation. The project is oriented towards the development of a domain-specific design automation framework for cryptographic hardware. Your work will focus on design-space exploration and optimizations tailored to different environments. The optimizations range from algebraic optimizations (e.g., term rewriting), to algorithmic optimizations (e.g., group level algorithms), and to hardware optimizations (e.g., automated pipelining). The PhD student will be supervised by Nusa Zidaric.
Application Deadline: 31 May 2025
2. Fully Funded PhD Position in TATTOOS: paTtern formATion Trough biO-inspired cOmputer viSion
Summary of PhD Program:
This project aims to create in a deep neural network with a strong prior knowledge of pattern formation systems on animals’ skin, with the aim of identifying individuals based on their maculation. You will work in a vibrant interdisciplinary environment collaborating closely with a team of experts in computer vision, and imaging at LIACS, in mathematical mechanistic models, at VU, and with biologists expert in pattern formation on animals’ skin, at Naturalis.
Application Deadline: 25 May 2025
Follow FellowshipBard for daily updates!
3. Fully Funded PhD Position in End-to-End Causal Learning
Summary of PhD Program:
In this project, we aim to develop an end-to-end framework for the task of causal inference. This framework comprises three main components: causal discovery, identification analysis, and experiment design. The causal discovery part learns a causal model of the environment from the available data. This model is then used in the identification analysis to get an estimate of the causal effect. If the estimation is not accurate, a limited number of experiments are performed through the experiment design part to enhance knowledge about the underlying system, thereby improving the accuracy of causal effect estimation. This project combines techniques from statistics, graphical model learning, and stochastic optimization, embracing an interdisciplinary approach.
Application Deadline: 27 May 2025
4. Fully Funded PhD Position in Exploring Pareidolia in Comp. Vision to Enhance Interpretability and Creativity in AI
Summary of PhD Program:
Why does an AI think something is a face —or not? This PhD project investigates pareidolia—the brain’s tendency to perceive faces in non-face visuals such as clouds, sockets, and tree trunks—as a tool to enhance interpretability, robustness, and creativity in computer vision. While human vision is remarkably adaptive and creative, current AI models struggle to recognize or convincingly generate pareidolic patterns. Understanding why this gap between human and machine perception emerges can guide the development of more human-like AI systems.
Application Deadline: 31 May 2025
Find Fully Funded PhD in UK
5. Fully Funded PhD Position in Ion transport and synthesis of two dimensional nanopores and nanoporous membranes
Summary of PhD Program:
Current separation technology is crucial for many aspects of human life and accounts for ~15% of the world’s energy consumption. While the particle flow through separation columns is directional at the atomistic scale, undirected Brownian motion dominates in state-of-the-art membranes. 2D membranes have the potential to overcome this intrinsic deficiency and shift the paradigm of particle transport from disordered Brownian motion to unidirectional flow. In the project we will develop 2D polymer heterostructure membranes (2DHMs) combined with functionalized graphene. They offer ultimate thinness (leading to shortest diffusion lengths), precision pore geometry/size (resulting in high size-selectivity, even for hydrogen isotopes), and high functionality (fostering chemical/charge selectivity and ionic gating), making them ideal membrane materials to realize selective and unidirectional ion transport.
Application Deadline: 31 May 2025
6. Fully Funded PhD Position in Single molecule detection with nanojunctions at the edge of graphene
Summary of PhD Program:
DNA sequencing has become a widely accessible and affordable technology. Yet, the development has currently slowed down, and wider applications require further advances. Now, with the added goals of sequencing proteins and polysaccharides, current state-of-the-art single molecule sensors, that obtain information indirectly by measuring the ionic current of molecular ions through nanopores, cannot discriminate between moieties of similar molecular size (for instance, amino acids in proteins, or monosaccharides in glycans). The most advanced nanopore sensors can ‘read’ DNA polymers at the level of stretches of three nucleotides, but not at the level of a single nucleotide.
Application Deadline: 31 May 2025
7. Fully Funded PhD Position in Ion transport and synthesis of two dimensional nanopores and nanoporous membranes
Summary of PhD Program:
Current separation technology is crucial for many aspects of human life and accounts for ~15% of the world’s energy consumption. While the particle flow through separation columns is directional at the atomistic scale, undirected Brownian motion dominates in state-of-the-art membranes. 2D membranes have the potential to overcome this intrinsic deficiency and shift the paradigm of particle transport from disordered Brownian motion to unidirectional flow. In the project we will develop 2D polymer heterostructure membranes (2DHMs) combined with functionalized graphene. They offer ultimate thinness (leading to shortest diffusion lengths), precision pore geometry/size (resulting in high size-selectivity, even for hydrogen isotopes), and high functionality (fostering chemical/charge selectivity and ionic gating), making them ideal membrane materials to realize selective and unidirectional ion transport.
Application Deadline: 31 May 2025
Find Fully Funded PhD in USA
8. Fully Funded PhD Position in Identification of foods and food processing in dental calculus
Summary of PhD Program:
The Department of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, is looking for a PhD candidate to perform research on the visibility of sessile foods (plants, honey) and food processing techniques (fermentation, cooking) in dental calculus. The project is part of the NWO-VICI awarded to Prof. dr. A.G. Henry, titled: “Hominin FoodWays: Changing diet and food processing across climate frontiers,” which explores the drivers behind the first hominin migration out of Africa. Homo erectus was the first of our ancestors to leave a narrow range of African habitats and expand into Eurasia, but the behavioural changes that allowed this migration remain debated.
Application Deadline: 31 May 2025
9. Fully Funded PhD Position in Costs and benefits of wild plants
Summary of PhD Program:
The Department of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, is looking for a PhD candidate to perform research on the energetic and nutritional costs and benefits of Eurasian wild plant foods. The project is part of the NWO-VICI awarded to Prof. dr. A.G. Henry, titled: “Hominin FoodWays: Changing diet and food processing across climate frontiers,” which explores the drivers behind the first hominin migration out of Africa. Homo erectus was the first of our ancestors to leave a narrow range of African habitats and expand into Eurasia, but the behavioural changes that allowed this migration remain debated.
Application Deadline: 31 May 2025
Find Fully Funded PhD in Europe
10. Fully Funded PhD Position in Chemical Immunology
Summary of PhD Program:
The exact mechanism of how inhibitory receptors interact with their ligands is not understood. Especially for soluble ligands that are not expressed on cells, it is unknown what receptor: ligand dynamics lead to optimal receptor activation. In this project, funded by the ZonMW Open Competition, immunologists team up with chemists to visualize and follow individual ligand: receptor interactions on immune cells using single-molecule microscopy. This way, we aim to unveil the fundamental requirements of ligands such that we make chemical designer ligands for inhibitory receptors.
Application Deadline: 29 May 2025
11. Fully Funded PhD Position in Computational Imaging for Cultural Heritage
Summary of PhD Program:
As a PhD student, you will be embedded in the research group Computational Imaging and Deep Learning (CIDL), part of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). As a team, we develop cutting-edge techniques for advanced computational imaging systems, combining expertise from Mathematics (Inverse Problems), Computer Science (Efficient Algorithms and High-Performance Computing), and Physics (Image Formation Modelling).
Application Deadline: 1 June 2025
Explore PhD Salary, Jobs, & Career Growth
12. Fully Funded PhD Position in Noncommutative geometry and function theory
Summary of PhD Program:
Applications are invited for a 4-year PhD position with Francesca Arici at the Mathematical Institute of the University of Leiden, as part of the VIDI project “The noncommutative geometry of bounded symmetric domains”. The overarching aim of this project is to achieve a comprehensive understanding of a wide spectrum of quantum spaces known as quantum symmetric domains, central to the framework of noncommutative geometry (NCG). The proposed research revolves around the following key objectives:Characterise quantum symmetric domains and related algebras in terms of structural properties and topological and geometric invariants.
