Pre-arrival information – 2024 PhD student cohort

Thank you for accepting our offer and welcome on board! We are all very happy and excited to welcome such a bright and international student group this fall! We are looking forward to meeting you September 16th (the default start date).

Admissions, HR, and Student Affairs will be your primary contacts during the next few months during the onboarding process:

Uli (Admissions) will remain your primary contact related to the admissions process (including document submission)

Eszter & Adam (Student Affairs): direct your questions related to the curriculum here.

Vlad will handle logistical questions including visa/residency permit questions. He can also be contacted if you decide to live off campus and want to start looking for housing right away.

Katja from the Campus Services team will be your go-to person if you are interested in living on campus.

Susanne, Arzu, Adela, and Aga in the HR department are your contacts for anything related to your contract, from employment confirmations and insurance coverage to vacations.

We recommend you organize a private chat group for your cohort on the social media platform of your choice (please make sure this is accessible to all candidates!). Thank you Anna! Here is the link to a What’sApp group: link

Please read the information below carefully. You can also find a summary of the To-Do’s on the bottom of the page. As always, new paragraphs will be marked with NEW. 

Contents

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Info Sessions

Over the summer we will schedule two type of sessions. The first will focus on logistical and administrative aspects of your move to Austria and ISTA, where the Graduate School Office and our international officer will attempt to answer all questions you may have from visa, housing options, what type of documents do bring along, settling in Austria etc.

The second one will focus on the academic questions ranging from how to go about choosing rotations and courses, what to expect from the 1st year etc. This session will be chaired by our Dean(s) and will be schedule in the summer months (likely early August).

Session(s) on Logistical Matters PASSED

This session has already taken place. Please refer to the Miro board to see what you missed.

Session(s) on Academic Matters PASSED

See the questions discussed on the Miro Board.

Documents to Submit

Graduate School Office

Please provide the Graduate School Office with the following items in electronic version by 31 July 2024 at the latest:

1. A copy of the biographical page of your passport
2. An electronic portrait photo (in .jpg format) for your student ID (no smaller than 250KB)
3. Should you still be enrolled in a Bachelor or Master program, you should also send your final transcript and degree confirmation.
4. Last but not least, please keep us updated should your e-mail address change over the upcoming weeks and months (particularly if you have used an institutional email address).

Let us know as soon as possible if you run into any delays in finishing your degree program. We will look into your situation and find a customized solution.

Info for Master students: should you not be able to finish your degree by the date mentioned above, we will start you on the bachelor’s student salary until you have submitted the confirmation that you have finished your master’s program. The salary will then be upgraded for the next month. A word of advice: try to avoid a long overlap of completing your Master studies and starting your PhD studies. Both endeavors require your full focus and trying to manage both at the same time inevitably leads to a lot of stress. Therefore try to keep the overlap to a minimum.

As always: please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions or if there are any changes that may affect your start of the PhD program in the coming weeks and months.

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Visa

In principle all non-EEA citizens will need to apply for a Visa D. You should have the Visa in your passport so you can enter Austria and start working right away.

To-Do: Please provide Vlad with an electronic version of your passport as soon as possible! For specific questions, technicalities and more detailed information please contact Vlad directly.

Some Austrian embassies and consulates encourage the researcher visa applicant to also apply for the permit at the embassy: please do not accept this suggestion. It is your privilege as a scientist/researcher to apply in Austria for the permit and you should do so since this process is faster and easier than applying initially from abroad. After your arrival and within the six months of the Visa D validity you’ll need to file for the settlement permit researcher here at local Immigration Authority.

Visa D Application Form
Residency Permit Researcher Application Form

Documents to bring with you:

• criminal record/ police clearance letter
• birth certificate

You need to officially translate all documents that are not in English into German. This applies to all documents that you need for applying for a visa and/or residency permit.

Non-EEA citizens who have already a Schengen Area permit can skip the Visa D and apply directly on site for the permit, two weeks at the very latest, before the official employment start.

The relevant Visa documents, namely the hosting agreement and travel insurance confirmation, will be send out during the month of June. Please provide HR and/or Graduate School with your passports and of course you’ll need to accept our offer in order to receive the Visa documents.

If you need to arrive late due to visa-related issues, we advise you to contact us (Vlad and Grad School Office) so we can make the necessary adjustments to your program.

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Housing

For housing on campus you have access to our long-term housing option consisting of 90 apartments (between 35m² and 78m²), starting from September.

If you wish to make a reservation for one of our apartments, please contact Katja Rimpl (apartment@ist.ac.at) of Campus Services by 31 May 2024 at the latest. For terms and conditions and exact prices, please get in touch with Katja. Please also inform Katja if you are coming alone or with a partner, as there are apartments with single or double beds. It is also possible to share a two-bedroom apartment. If you are interested in this option, please inform Katja accordingly.

All housing requests (for guesthouse rooms and/or apartments) placed after 31 May 2024 are handled on a first-come, first-served basis, and will be subject to availability.

The price for one-bedroom apartments ranges between EUR 641-731 (including all taxes and services, internet access, electricity, heating and water). Flats include basic furniture in the apartment (e.g. kitchen, bathroom, table, chairs, bed and wardrobe). No other fixtures are included (e.g. no cutlery, no bed linen, no blankets, no pillows, etc.). A common laundry room is available in the apartment blocks. For more information please consult the campus housing website.

Overseas students will be given priority when allocating apartments. In the event of our new apartments being booked out, we expect to be able to offer you access to mid-term housing options (old apartments: 2-6 months) or short-term options (guesthouse: 1-3 months).

Details of different housing options

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Orientation Weeks

New student orientation will take place from September 16th to October 4th. NEW (15.07) A tentative orientation schedule is available in the Welcome Materials, linked below. You should plan on arriving no later than September 16, and ideally with some days to spare. An earlier arrival gives you a head start to take care of a host of administrative necessities (opening a bank account, registration with the local authority, acquiring apartment supplies, etc.).

The orientation program will begin the morning of Monday, September 16th with a (mandatory) welcome session & short introduction to the PhD program’s curricular components. We will close the morning with a lunchtime poster session.

In the afternoon, you will meet with HR, pick up your ISTA IT credentials and laptop, and receive your access card from Vlad. For these HR-related topics, you will be grouped into two groups (depending upon whether you will need a residence permit or not).

We will finish off the first orientation week with our traditional welcome BBQ.

NEW (09.09)

The group assignments for the Essentials Skills workshops are now available in the Welcome Materials folder. These same groups are used for the Into the Unknown session, as well as the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training.

If you are unable to attend an assigned session, please email Hania Koever (hania.koever@ista.ac.at) in advance so that we can find an alternate session for you to attend.

***

We are organizing a visit (guided tour) to the Klosterneuburg Abbey on Sep 23 (Mon), 10.00-11.30 – please sign up if you’d like to participate.
The 12th century Abbey is located in the center of Klosterneuburg, overlooking the Danube.
Please note that this event clashes with the Microscopy course.

We are organizing a visit (guided tour) to museum gugging on Sep 25 (Wed), 10.00-11.00 – please sign up if you’d like to participate.
museum gugging, located at the ISTA campus, is an exhibition venue for the presentation of the work of the Gugging Artists at its place of origin, while serving as a forum for international Art Brut at the same time.
Please note that this event clashes with the Animal Handling course.

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Academic Topics

Please review the Welcome Materials, where you’ll find:

1. 1. Program policies, categorized by topic. Please read the following documents particularly carefully, as they’re most relevant to you as new students:
      • Rotation & Affiliation
      • Courses
      • Routes & Tracks
   2. PhD Requirements (2024)
   3. Schedules (Orientation, Courses, & Academic Calendar)

The course catalog has been published, and registration for courses will open in September. You will receive information on how to register during orientation. We strongly recommend that you have a look at our course offerings beforehand in order to get a rough idea which courses you might want to take.

Rotations

NEW (15.07.) Please submit your Rotation Preferences by August 16th. Instructions are on the form. You may also want to refer to the document Rotation & Affiliation in the Welcome Materials for guidance.

Rotation periods are as follows (see below).

Rotation 1: Oct 14 – Dec 13
Rotation 2: Jan 7 – March 7
Rotation 3: Mar 17 – May 16
Rotation 4: May 26 – Jul 25

New Faculty
We are happy to report that new faculty will be joining ISTA during the 2024-25 Academic Year. Their expected arrival date on campus is indicated in brackets. They may be considered as potential supervisors and rotation hosts. The experimentalists among them will need some time to set-up their lab. If you are interested in doing a rotation with any of them, please reach out to them to discuss the best timing.
Zoltan Haiman – Astronomy (2025-01)
Michael Sammler – Computer Science  (2025-01)
Latha Venkataraman – Chemistry. Physics (2025-01)

Faculty on Sabbatical
The following professor(s) will be on sabbatical/ or are planning to be on sabbatical for the time period indicated and may not take rotation students during that time period. If you are interested in their groups or doing a rotation with them, please reach out to them to discuss the best timing or discuss options.
Krishnendu Chatterjee – Computer Science – Oct-Dec 2024
Vadim Kaloshin – Mathematics – Sep 2024 – May 2025

Departed Faculty
The following professors have recently left ISTA:
Bingqing Cheng – Chemistry
Lefteris Kokoris-Kogias – Computer Science

Mentors and Student Buddies

Mentors
You will be assigned a faculty mentor who can provide general advice about navigating your life as a PhD student at ISTA. Mentors are typically outside the immediate subject-area of the student.

Student Buddies
Our current students will set-up a student buddy system for all incoming students. Each of you will be paired up with one of these buddies for additional pre- and on-site support.

Student Buddies are volunteers and often 2^nd year students. They can provide informal advice on graduate student life at ISTA (or Austria in general) as well as share their experience (e.g. How did you go about setting up a rotation? How difficult was course X?).

They will get in touch with you individually over the next weeks. Please use them; they are a great resource!

Track Representatives

Once you are at ISTA, you will have chance to discuss your course and rotation plans with professors and fellow students and will finalize them with input from our track representatives. These are faculty representing the seven tracks (i.e. the main fields of research) which currently exist: Mathematics, Computer Sciences , Physics, Data Science & Scientific Computing, Biology, Chemistry & Materials and Neuroscience. For each track, an info session will be held during orientation.

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IT needs

You will receive a laptop from IST Austria. Our IT department will distribute the laptops and has for details on the operating system you require.

You can pick up your work laptop from our IT department and get access credentials to the ISTA intranet during the orientation week. IT will hand out the laptops on the first day in the Ballroom, Central Building (opposite the Raiffeisen Lecture Hall). Note that you will need a working cell phone to enable two factor authentication.

If you are arriving later and need access to your ISTA account for registering for classes etc., IT can send you your access coordinates. For that we will need an external e-mail address AND a mobile phone number. Anyone coming late should contact the IT department and thereafter pick up your laptop at the Support Counter in the Admin. Building, ground floor.

NEW (01.08.) If you would prefer Ubuntu (Linux) rather than Windows installed on your laptop, please complete this simple form.

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Logistics

Please provide Vlad with the following information:

• • Visa/residency permit (if needed): send Vlad an electronic copy of your passport (biographical page) as soon as possible! Vlad will provide you with the necessary documents and detailed information. You can hand in your application 6 months before the planned arrival at the earliest, but you should contact him now so that you can plan ahead.
  • If your are NOT present on September 16: your planned date of arrival: the default start date for student contracts is 16 September 2024 and you should plan on arriving on campus at the very latest on the morning of Friday, 16 September 2024. However, we strongly recommend that you arrive a few days earlier to take care of logistics such as signing your contract, opening a bank account, and other practical matters.

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HR topics

HR will hold a Welcome Meeting on 16 September 2024 in the afternoon. In this meeting you will receive information about working at ISTA including about health insurance, taxes, residency permit and employment in Austria in general. Our HR colleagues Arzu and tbd will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

All HR documents are signed through our digital signature tool. You you will receive your employment contracts for signature in early September. Please let us/HR know if you need a confirmation of employment earlier, f.ex. if you need a proof of finances for signing a rental agreement.

For a draft version of contract click this link.

If you want to get started reading up on Austria and dive into some HR topics, take a look at the Welcome Guide.

Welcome Day Monday 16: HR will divide you into two groups, based on your nationality/residence status: Group A: any one who is NOT a EU or EEA citizen (i.e. China, India, Iran, Americas, Russia, UK, etc.), and Group B: all EU citizens (including Austrians).

NEW (28.08.) Check out which group you are in.

TO-DO’s: HR Documents to bring along and submit on September 16, 2024 (deadline: Sept 20, 2024)

Please submit the following documents via email to hr.administration@ist.ac.at at your earliest convenience. At latest, please provide them to us during the Welcome Meeting on September 16, 2024:

• • 1. Personal Data Sheet (please note that you need a bank account within the Eurozone; we will provide physical copies of the Personal Data Sheet during the Welcome Meeting and you will then also have time to fill it in during the meeting)
       (File name: Personal Data Sheet)
    2. Copy of your registration confirmation (see paragraph residency: registration and permits)
    3. Bank account details (Euro zone)
    4. If applicable: copy of your marriage certificate and/or birth certificate(s) of your child(ren)

It is perfectly fine to submit documents b and c to HR via email shortly after the Welcome Meeting.

Relevant HR documents

Residency – registration & permits

relevant for anyone in the HR group A
Application form residence permit for non EU/EEA citizens
Info sheet for non EU/EEA citizens living in Klosterneuburg
Info sheet for non EU/EEA citizens living in Vienna

NEW (28.08.) HR info material 

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To Do’s

Deadline	To Do
As soon as possible	If you need a visa, send a photocopy of the biographical page of your passport to Vlad
May 31	Book on-campus housing
June/July	Apply for visa/residency permit (if needed)
July 31	Provide (to Admissions): – A photocopy of the biographical page of your passport – An electronic portrait photo (in jpg format) for your student ID – If applicable: your final transcript and degree confirmation should you still be enrolled in an Bachelor or Master program
August 16	Submit the Rotation Preferences Form.
Prior to Arrival	Review the Welcome Materials.

Contact information

Vlad, Admissions (Uli & Jennifer) and Student Affairs (Adam & Eszter) will be your primary administrative contacts during the onboarding process. Please reach out to Admissions only if your question is strictly related to the admissions process. Vlad will handle logistical questions including both visa/residency permit questions and matters related to living off campus. Student Affairs can field questions related to curriculum.

Let’s stay in touch. As you prepare for join us in person, we encourage you to start your graduate student experience virtually by attending our public online events or connecting to one of our social media channels. Have a look at the online events coming up at ISTA, from science talks to conferences & symposia, on our Talks App. Follow ISTA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube or sign up for the quarterly newsletter to receive updates about our latest research and public events. If you have questions, we’re here to help.

Last updated: 19.07.2024