On Thursday, 14 October 2021, ELI’s President Prof Dr Pascal Pichonnaz and ELI’s recently appointed Scientific Director Prof Dr Christiane Wendehorst were joined by Speaker of the Vienna Doctoral Academy (VDA), Prof Dr Franz Stefan Meissel, in a meeting that sought to explore the prospects of ELI and the VDA entering into a mutually beneficial partnership. The meeting is the second in a series of talks between ELI and key individuals within the University of Vienna.

The VDA is a recently launched initiative at the University of Vienna that seeks to bring together the most committed doctoral candidates and supervisors, providing a platform for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary discussions, therefore increasing the external visibility of doctoral programmes at the University of Vienna, facilitating cohort formation and establishing a group identity of doctoral candidates and supervisors.