Doctoral Training in Austria: An Evaluation of the doc.funds Programme

Doc.funds has been the successor programme to the FWF Doctoral Programme (Doktoratskollegs) since 2016/2017. Its aim is to further develop struc­tu­red doctoral pro­gram­mes and inte­gra­ting par­ti­cu­lar­ly talented young rese­ar­chers into excellent research projects. Applicant uni­ver­si­ties and insti­tu­ti­ons must already comply with national and inter­na­tio­nal standards of struc­tu­red doctoral training and, in addition to the research proposal, submit concepts for the further deve­lo­p­ment of doctoral education and supervision.

Over recent years, doctoral training in Europe has undergone fun­da­men­tal reform. In Austria, nearly all uni­ver­si­ties have estab­lished struc­tu­red doctoral pro­gram­mes, which has led, among other things, to an incre­a­sing pro­por­ti­on of inter­na­tio­nal doctoral can­di­da­tes and higher com­ple­ti­on rates. Despite this progress, signi­fi­cant chal­lenges and further deve­lo­p­ment needs remain in this field.

Against these trends, the eva­lua­ti­on examines, to what extent the FWF doc.funds programme influen­ced the further deve­lo­p­ment of struc­tu­red doctoral training in Austria. Specifically, it investigates

• which forms of struc­tu­red doctoral training exist in Austria,
• which relevant inno­va­tions can be attri­bu­ted to the doc.funds programme,
• which inter­na­tio­nal standards have been imple­men­ted in Austrian doctoral training, and
• how the doc.funds programme could be further developed.

The eva­lua­ti­on, conducted by 3s, draws on Geels‘ Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), an ana­ly­ti­cal approach for examining inno­va­ti­on processes across different levels.