PhD and MD-PhD Program on Translational Visual Neurosciences
Call for fellowship applications
Vision is a key sense of humans and dysfunction of the visual system leads to visual handicap or blindness. The IOB PhD and MD-PhD Program in Translational Visual Neurosciences provides opportunities to explore the function and dysfunction of the eye and visual brain, as well as to pioneer therapies for eye diseases.
IOB is an associate institute of the University of Basel and the MD-PhD and PhD students will be enrolled at the university of Basel
>> Read carefully about our Fellowships, Admission requirements and Application process before applying.
>> The 2025/2026 call for applications is now cloased. The next call is expected for Fall 2026.
Curriculum
In addition to participating in world-leading vision research, IOB also offers:
- A lectures series on vision, eye diseases and therapies
- Practical courses in state of the art physiological, molecular and translational technologies
- A biweekly Internal seminars (incl. Journal and Data Club)
- Training in transferable skills such as scientific writing and scientific presentation
- In addition to the annual IOB retreat, the PhD program also offers the opportunity to participate in a summer school or a conference once a year.
IOB PhD and MD-PhD candidates are enrolled at the University of Basel and can participate in a wide range of courses and trainings, for example in the Graduate Teaching Programme of the Biozentrum
Table: PhD/MD-PhD students’ typical curriculum at IOB
1st year | 2nd year | 3rd year | 4th/5th year |
Registration /matriculation at Uni Basel |
|
| Thesis writing/Defense |
Selection of second supervisor/signing doctoral agreement /first PAC* meeting | Second PAC meeting | Third PAC meeting | PAC meeting |
Lecture series/practical courses/Internal seminars | Internal seminars | Internal seminars | Internal seminars |
Courses e.g. Science integrity, LTK (rodent handling) | Additional courses (technical courses) | Soft skill courses (such as scientific writing) |
|
Participation in the annual IOB retreat | |||
Participation in scientific events (1 event/ student/year) | |||
*PAC: PhD Advisory Committee
Research Groups
- Rava Azeredo da Silveira: Theoretical & computational Neuroscience Group
- Felix Franke: Quantitative Visual Physiology Group
- Botond Roska: Central Visual Circuits & Human Retinal Circuits Groups
- Bence György: Ophthalmic Translational Research Group
- Carlo Rivolta: Ophthalmic Genetics Group
Our PhD Community in numbers (2025):
- IOB counts 14 PhD students & 6 MD-PhDs.
- A 90% of our PhD students are international.
- With a diverse mix of 16 nationalities.
Contact
For any inquiries, feel free to reach out to us at phd-program@iob.ch
Please note that we accept applications only through our application portal and applications received via email will not be taken into account.