[MEI-L] PhD opportunity in Digital Music Research at mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

[David M. Weigl]

Dear list (with apologies for cross-posting),

Please may I direct your attention to the following funded PhD 
opportunity in Digital Music Research at mdw in Vienna!

Application link: https://www.mdw.ac.at/bewerbungsportal/mittelbau/344

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with any questions!

Kind regards,

David M. Weigl, PhD

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Praedoc (doctoral student) (f/m/d)
Deadline: Monday, 16 Feb 2026

The Department of Music Acoustics – Wiener Klangstil (IWK) at the mdw – 
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna is offering the position of a

Praedoc (doctoral student) (f/m/d)

to conduct research at the Department of Music Acoustics – Wiener 
Klangstil (IWK) at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

The successful candidate will conduct research situated within the IWK’s 
“Digital Music Research” area led by Dr. David M. Weigl in collaboration 
with Prof. Werner Goebl (Head of Department). Within the scope of 
ongoing and planned future research projects, the successful candidate 
is expected to contribute to research and development on the technical 
framework for digital music research at IWK, incorporating music 
encoding, FAIR distributed data infrastructures, and semantic Web 
technologies.

The FWF-funded project “Let’s Encode!” (PAT 2277625; 2026–29), conducted 
between IWK and the mdw’s Dept. of Cultural Management and Gender 
Studies (IKM) provides a primary focus for these activities. This 
project will establish a sustainable, decentralised Citizen Science 
infrastructure for crowd-based music encoding and validation activities, 
building on the mei-friend music editing software developed at IWK. The 
project will involve close interdisciplinary collaboration between 
specialists in music informatics, music encoding, cultural management 
and cultural institution studies, and will feature a strong emphasis on 
the incentivization of music scholars, performers, and enthusiasts to 
participate in crowd-encoding activities, as well as on digital 
dissemination of findings to these audiences.

The successful candidate is expected to undertake doctoral studies at mdw.

Expected starting date: 1 April 2026 (flexible)
Working hours: Part-time, 30 hours per week (alongside PhD)
Contract length: 46 months
Salary: According to the Austrian collective labour agreement, the 
monthly gross pay for doctoral candidates is € 2.832,10 (14 times), 
including health care and social benefits

Tasks: The successful candidate is responsible for research and 
development on the technical framework for digital music research at 
IWK, incorporating music encoding, FAIR distributed data 
infrastructures, and semantic Web technologies. These must be developed 
in close coordination with user research conducted as part of our 
projects. The successful candidate is expected to work collaboratively 
with project teams in requirements elicitation, specification, and 
implementation of prototypes, as well as in the design of accessible and 
audience-appropriate interfaces and documentation. A deep familiarity 
with our key audiences – music scholars, performers, and enthusiasts – 
and a background in musicology is essential for this task.

Employment requirements: Applicants hold a Master’s degree in 
musicology, informatics, or a closely related field, have completed 
substantial academic training at Bachelor level in both musicology and 
informatics (or closely related fields), and demonstrate 
interdisciplinary familiarity across these domains. Experience with 
programming languages (e.g., Python, JavaScript), music encoding 
technologies (e.g., MEI, MusicXML) and semantic Web technologies (e.g., 
RDF, JSON-LD) is essential. Applicants must demonstrate professional 
competence in English and German.

Desired qualifications:. Experience with distributed data storage and 
processing, e.g., using GitHub Actions or Solid PODs would be beneficial.

Application deadline: February 16, 2026

Applications must be submitted in electronic form via the mdw 
application portal https://www.mdw.ac.at/bewerbungsportal. Applications 
should include 1) a cover letter describing your qualifications and 
interest in the research topic, 2) a CV, 3) a short research proposal 
(2–3 pages), and 4) contact details for two referees. Applicants are 
encouraged to contact us before applying (contact: David M. Weigl, 
weigl at mdw.ac.at, and Werner Goebl, goebl at mdw.ac.at).

The mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna is committed to 
the equal treatment of all qualified applicants regardless of sex, 
gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, world-view, age, or 
disability. The University is particularly interested in increasing the 
percentage of women working in the artistic, scientific and general 
university personnel ranks. It therefore expressly encourages qualified 
women to apply. It should be specifically mentioned, however, that 
applicants who are invited to interview will not receive remuneration 
from the university for incurred travel and hotel expenses (interviews 
via teleconference can be accommodated).

Rector: Ulrike Sych


-- 
David M. Weigl, PhD
Senior Scientist, Dept. of Music Acoustics – Wiener Klangstil
mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1
1030 Vienna, Austria

weigl at mdw.ac.at
mdw.ac.at
mdw.ac.at/iwk
T +43 1 71155-4312

Follow us on Social Media: https://www.mdw.ac.at/187/

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