sowi:doc Awards 2025

Each year, the Faculty of Social Sciences awards the sowi:doc Awards to selected doctoral graduates who completed their doctoral studies in last academic year. The Award winners receive EUR 1,500 each for their outstanding research contributions in the framework of their doctoral thesis. The Award aims at motivating doctoral graduates to pursue a career in academia.

With the announcement of the sowi:doc Awards 2025, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences ask supervisors to nominate excellent doctoral theses that fulfil the criteria mentioned below by 14 September 2025 A supervisor may have been involved in the supervision of only one nominated doctoral thesis (including in the case of co-supervision). Graduates of the doctoral programme are not allowed to nominate themselves.

For the academic year 2024/2025, up to three awards will be awarded. An interdisciplinary expert committee, appointed by the Dean of the Faculty, is responsible for making the final award decision.

Submission requirements

  • Successful completion of the doctoral programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Vienna between 1 September 2024 and 31 August 2025
  • Doctoral thesis with an excellent assessment (at least one examiner report attaining an “excellent” grade, the second examiner report attaining at least a “good” grade and the public defence receiving an “excellent” grade)
  • Completion of the doctoral programme within twelve semesters. (The maximum permitted duration can be exceeded by up to two semesters upon provision of a legitimate and justifiable reason.)
  • In the case of prize winners employed at the University of Vienna, the prize money cannot be paid directly and instead must be transferred to the respective department. There, it can be used by the prize winner for research purposes.


Required documents

  • On one page: Title of the doctoral thesis, name of the supervisor, brief description of the topic of the doctoral thesis (abstract)
  • Nomination letter from the supervisor (no more than one page)
  • Full text of the doctoral thesis
  • Curriculum vitae of the candidate (including date of birth and contact details (mail and e-mail)), as well as a list of publications
  • Both examiner reports on the doctoral thesis
  • Confirmation of study periods
  • Doctoral degree certificate

Documents have to be submitted in electronic form, in either English or German.

Supervisors can nominate one doctoral thesis each (including in the case of co-supervision) that fulfils the criteria mentioned above. Please send your proposals via e-mail (including all required documents, subject line “sowi:doc Awards 2025”) to vds-sosci@univie.ac.at by Sunday, 14 September 2025. Please contact Roman Pfefferle (+43-1-4277-49081) or Eva Kössner (+43-1-4277-49082) if you have any questions.