Doc.funds.connect FWF project for 7 PhD positions was accepted!

We congratulate Günther Grabner for getting the FWF doc.funds project in cooperation with Wolfgang Bogner from the Medical University of Vienna (MUV), which will fund up to 7 PhD positions (4 at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS) and 3 at the MUV). The aim of this doctoral program is to initiate a stable educational and research platform to bundle scientific expertise and state-of-the-art facilities of four departments of the Medical University of Vienna (radiology, neurology/neuropathology, medical physics, and neurosurgery) and the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (Department of Engineering & IT).

The project is entitled “Interdisciplinary platform for new research methods in the field of demyelinating diseases and brain tumours – where ultrahigh field MRI, histology, and artificial intelligence meet”, and is built around three major research topics:

  • Developing advanced neuro MR imaging acquisition methods
  • Identifying clinical MR imaging biomarkers for neurological disorders
  • Establishing new computational analysis and visualizing methods

The main research goal of this collaborative doctoral program is to establish new clinically relevant biomarkers in major neurological disorders via the development of new MR imaging methods, the combination of these together with other clinical markers, and the design of machine learning-based data analysis and visualization approaches. This may lead to the development of advanced clinical decision support and visualization tools with high clinical impact and the training of the next generation of scientists, developers, and medical doctors, which will jointly bring these technologies into the clinics. In this way, the expertise in basic and clinical research at the MUV can be efficiently combined with the industry-focused entrepreneurship at the CUAS. This will be a solid basis for future commercialization and start-ups in the booming field of medical technologies.

All PhD candidates will be enrolled in the N094 “Medical Imaging” program at the MUV, but with the lectures split between CUAS and MUV.

This doc.connect program will integrate senior and junior faculty members from both universities. While the senior faculty members are internationally renowned experts in their respective disciplines, the junior faculty members are mostly postdoctoral researchers who are in transition to a fully independent academic career. They will support the respective senior faculty member, and thereby gain experience in mentoring students. The senior and junior faculty members were selected to cover a wide range of complementary research disciplines relevant to the program: physics, informatics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, electrical/biomedical engineering, radiology, neurology, neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, and neuropathology. This highly interdisciplinary will provide a unique opportunity for teaching and instructing the next generation of medical doctors, scientists, and entrepreneurs.

Once again, congratulations!

Yours,
MedTech @ FH Kärnten Team