On behalf of the Sustain Vitis Consortium and in accordance with the European Project Consortium Agreement, Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM) is pleased to announce a selection process for 15 Doctoral Candidates (PhD positions) under the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Industrial Doctoral Network.

This international recruitment call offers an outstanding opportunity for early-stage researchers to join a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary network within the Sustain Vitis project (Improving the sustainability of the wine value chain in a concerted effort of academia and Industry), aimed at catalyzing sustainable approaches across the sector.

Funding reference: MSCA-2025-DN-01 – Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions - Doctoral Networks 2025 - MARIE CURIE GRANT AGREEMENT NUMBER 101311966.

Coordinating organization: Silvia Vezzulli (NC) and Stefania Pilati (vice-NC) from FEM, on behalf of the Sustain Vitis consortium. 

For more information see the project website .

As the Network Coordinator, Fondazione Edmund Mach manages the centralized administrative pre-screening of all applications on behalf of the 22 international project partners. The evaluation of qualifications and the interview phase will be organized separately by the recruiting organizations, in collaboration with the related PhD Doctoral Schools. The interviews will be held by video link by different Selection committees on different days as follows:

• for DC1, DC5, DC7, DC12: evaluation committee organized by Fondazione Edmund Mach;
• for DC2, DC4, DC6, DC11, DC13, DC14: evaluation committee organized by Hochschule Geisenheim University;
• for DC8, DC9: evaluation committee organized by Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro;
• for DC3, DC10, DC15: evaluation committee organized by University of Bordeaux.

The Doctoral candidate key responsibilities are:

• To manage and carry out a research project within the duration of the Sustain Vitis project.
• To write a PhD dissertation.
• To participate in research and training activities within Sustain Vitis.
• To publish peer-reviewed scientific articles.
• To participate in meetings of different Sustain Vitis consortium bodies.
• To disseminate project results to the scientific community (international conferences) and non-scientific community through outreach and public engagement.
• To liaise with research staff and students working in broad areas of relevance to the research project and partner institutions.
• To write progress reports and prepare results for publication and dissemination via journals, presentations and the web.
• To attend progress and management meetings as required and network with the other research groups.

To be eligible for recruitment within the MSCA Doctoral Network, applicants must meet the following requirements:

• Master’s degree or an equivalent granting access to doctoral studies in the country of the recruiting institution, to be possessed by the date of recruitment;
• Doctoral candidate status: applicants must be doctoral candidates, i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment. Applicants who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will not be considered eligible.
• Doctoral enrolment: applicants will be enrolled in a doctoral programme leading to the award of a doctoral degree in at least one EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
• Nationality: applicants can be of any nationality.
• Mobility rule: applicants must comply with the following mobility rule: they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting beneficiary for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date (Country of the main activity: the country where the researcher is physically based when carrying out the main activity and the country of the institution for which the main activity is performed (e.g., employer)).
• Exceptions to the mobility rule: compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays and time spent by the researcher as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention 140 are not taken into account.
• Industrial Doctorates: doctoral candidates must spend at least 50% (18 months) of their fellowship duration in the non-academic sector.
• Knowledge of English (minimum level B1), evaluated during the interview.

See webpage with the list and details of the PhD projects , find here the list with a brief description:

1. DC1 - Advanced gene editing approaches to improve grapevine sustainability - WP1 (recruiter FEM, Italy);
2. DC2 - Innovative high-throughput phenotyping to explore variation in grapevine rootstock performance - WP1 (recruiter HGU, Germany);
3. DC3 - Phenotypic and -omic characterisation of a clonal population for trade-offs between abiotic stress tolerance and berry composition - WP1 (recruiter INRAE, France);
4. DC4 - Molecular picture and digital phenotyping of a grapevine germplasm collection for resistance and resilience traits - WP1 (recruiter Hiphen, France);
5. DC5 - Genes controlling grapevine phenological traits influenced by climate change - WP1 (recruiter FEM, Italy)
6. DC6 - The vineyard holobiont as a resource for climate resilience - WP2 (recruiter HGU, Germany)
7. DC7 - Smart monitoring of grapevine pests via vibrational signals - WP2 (recruiter FEM, Italy)
8. DC8 - Advanced data management and decision support in precision viticulture and winemaking - WP2 (recruiter UTAD, Portugal)
9. DC9 - Enhancing ecosystem services in Mediterranean climate vineyards - WP2 (recruiter UTAD, Portugal)
10. DC10 - Alleviating smoke taints in wines - WP3 (recruiter UBx, France)
11. DC11 - More sustainable winemaking using non-Saccharomyces yeasts - WP3 (recruiter BioLF, France)
12. DC12 - Shelf life of wines in alternative packaging - WP3 (recruiter FEM, Italy)
13. DC13 - Market adoption and acceptance of sustainable wine packaging and PIWI-wines - WP3 (recruiter HGU, Germany)
14. DC14 - Valorisation of winemaking by-product extracts - WP3 (recruiter HGU, Germany)
15. DC15 - Wines without added sulphites and low alcohol - WP3 (recruiter UBx, France)

Please read the job announcement  to understand if you are eligible for the positions and to get information about how to apply (document available also at the bottom of the page).

Applications must arrive by and no later than 12:00 C.E.T. (the date and time of receipt shown in the electronic mail account of the Foundation shall be valid) on November 26, 2026. 

Applications to participate in the selection must be sent in electronic format to the email address (not certified email address, a.k.a. PEC) curricula@fmach.it , indicating the recruitment code (413_CRI_SVI - ITN Sustain vitis) in the subject of the message and must consist of:

• the application form Annex A, with basic contact information (name, surname, email), chosen specific DC projects (maximum two) and DC eligibility criteria (date of Master’s award, full-time postgraduate research experience in months, country of residence and duration of residence in that country), as per the model available in Microsoft Word.docx (the file is protected, if you need to modify it to complete your information, you can use the recruiting code as password to remove the protection: 413_CRI_SVI) or Adobe Acrobat.pdf , which must be saved with the file name and extension: Surname First Name_Application.pdf. The application must be fully completed, without any reference to other attached documentation and/or information;
• the complete master's thesis document, saved as: Surname First Name_Thesis.pdf;
• the candidate’s curriculum vitae with the list of publications, saved with the file name and extension as follows: Surname First Name_CV.doc or .pdf;
• a copy of a valid identity document.

Any person encountering difficulty in submitting the application due to disability is invited to contact +39 0461 615542.

The selected candidates are employed with a full-time contract. The salary follows the Marie Curie-Skłodowska IDN funding Scheme. All eligible researchers recruited within the IDN are entitled to receive the following salaries (gross amounts):

• Living allowance: 4,010 €/month gross amount corrected by a country-specific coefficient established by the European Commission (see the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Work Programme 2023-2025 , pp. 156-157).
• Mobility allowance: 710 €/month.
• Family allowance: 660 €/month (Namely, the PhD candidate must be linked to another person by a marriage, or a relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the legislation of the country where this relationship was formalised).

The amounts are total gross remuneration, including all social security contributions charged to the recruiting organisation and the PhD candidate. The amount depends on the country of the recruiting organisation and the applied laws and regulations. Tax regulations in the host countries apply. The family allowance is reserved for PhD candidates who have a spouse or are maintaining a child at the recruitment date. Any change in family obligations after this date will not be considered.

For the projects at FEM, candidate will be hired with the Provincial Collective Contract for Personnel of Research Foundations , Fourt level Researcher (R4).

In accordance with Article 13 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 ("GDPR" or "Regulation"), and in general with the principle of transparency set out in the Regulation, the Edmund Mach Foundation provides information on the processing of personal data at the webpage "Privacy Policy ".

In full compliance with the GDPR and specific consortium agreements (MSCA Grant Agreement n. 101311966), personal data and documentation of eligible candidates will be transferred exclusively to the respective third-party Recruiter institutions based on the specific PhD project preferences indicated in their application forms. Fondazione Edmund Mach performs centralized administrative pre-screening and verification of general and specific requirements for all candidates, whereas subsequent recruitment and evaluation phases are managed directly by the designated partner institutions, ensuring full transparency and legal protection for Fondazione Edmund Mach as network coordinator.

The candidate takes full responsibility for all the information included in their application form, curriculum vitae and the other attached documents. For the projects at FEM, the Foundation reserves the right to require that the candidate considered suitable for the post shall offer documentary proof of the qualifications they have listed.

The recruitment procedure will terminate at the latest by May 26, 2027.

For any matters not covered by this recruitment notice, reference should be made to “Procedure for the recruitment of human resources at the Fondazione Edmund Mach ”.