Join us for your PhD
in Information security

  • In your doctoral studies, you will learn to conduct independent research on scientific and applied problems in information security.

  • Become part of one of our excellent research teams and work on challenges in cryptography, system security, formal methods, and secure applications.

  • You will collaborate with your colleagues in the team, do experiments, ask questions, find answers and insights, and publish your research results in international high-profile conferences and journals.

  • You will expand your understanding and skills through individual research as well as in in-depth courses and collaborations with your colleagues and advisor.

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PhD at IAIK
Handbook

How to start a PhD at IAIK?

To start your PhD with us, you need to find a PhD supervisor and agree on a PhD project that aligns with your interests and our research goals.

We are generally always open to applications, so the best way is to go ahead and contact one of the teamleaders at IAIK or send your application to applications@iaik.tugraz.at.


In addition, you also need to be registered (inskribiert) to the Doctoral School of Computer Science at Graz University of Technology. For information about admission to this school and any other formalities, please, refer to the Doctoral School of Computer Science, CS+BME PhD info, TU Graz PhD admission requirements, and TU Graz admission steps.

PhD Students and PhD Candidates

At IAIK, we distinguish between PhD students and PhD candidates. You start your PhD project as a PhD student. To advance from PhD student to PhD candidate, you need to successfully publish peer-reviewed content for 3 thesis chapters or have 2 accepted papers at excellent venues (A* or equivalent). This has to take place within a timeframe of 1,5–3 years after the start of your PhD.

The duration of the doctoral program at IAIK is 3–5 years. Typically, a student will hold the status of PhD student for about 2 years. It is the responsibility of each individual student to successfully complete and defend their PhD thesis within the allotted time of at most 5 years. In agreement with your group leader, you can choose to stay at IAIK for a total of up to 6 years, counting from your first day as a PhD student.

PhD Proposals

As part of their doctoral studies, PhD students at IAIK must successfully defend a PhD proposal within 12 months after they start their employment as a PhD student at IAIK.

In the first year, students are expected to demonstrate all skills necessary for conducting a PhD according to their supervisor’s requirements. Students should typically have worked partly independently on their own project topic defined together with the supervisor. This includes writing (e.g., submitted paper) and speaking (e.g., seminar talk about ongoing work) about their results. A typical way of achieving this is submitting a paper to a conference or journal. We expect students to have at least one mature paper draft or submitted/accepted paper when they submit the proposal. The responsible supervisor will advise in more detail what they expect for a PhD student in their group to achieve during the first year. The PhD proposal is usually in the last month of the first year.

▶ The PhD proposal consists of a document, a 30-minute presentation, and a 30-minute question session.

It is judged by a committee, which is set up in mutual agreement between the student and their advisor and includes at least 3 professors (assistant/associate/full), including your supervisor and at most one professor who is not at IAIK.