HeiGIT together with the GIScience Research Group at Heidelberg University are open to hosting postdoctoral researchers through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF) 2026. The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships support excellent researchers holding a PhD who wish to advance their careers through international mobility, interdisciplinary research, and advanced training. We invite researchers working in geoinformatics particulary in the areas of climate action, humanitarian aid and GeoAI.
About research opportunities at HeiGIT & the GIScience Research Group
The GIScience Research Group at Heidelberg University and HeiGIT work closely together under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Alexander Zipf. Their shared mission is to advance geoinformatics research while creating solutions that respond to real world challenges.
The GIScience Research Group focuses on both basic and applied research. A key area is user generated geoinformation, including crowdsourcing and citizen science. The team develops new methods for analysing spatial data and applies them in fields such as disaster management, smart mobility, and big spatial data analytics.
As an affiliated non-profit institute, we translate these research insights into practical tools and services, enabling real-world impact in fields such as humanitarian aid, sustainable mobility, big spatial data analytics, and climate action. Our work leverages open data (e.g., OpenStreetMap), machine learning, spatial analytics, and geospatial data products such as Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) related indicators to support informed decision-making by NGOs, public institutions, and the broader scientific community.
Building on these foundations, many of our projects integrate GeoAI, satellite imagery, and multimodal data to support disaster planning and response, while also driving the development of climate indicators for data-driven decision making. Our work spans from the integration of street-level imagery with deep learning to detect and map critical infrastructure characteristics, to the development of heat-avoidant routing. All resulting tools, models, and findings are made openly available, either as open-source software or as accessible data products.
Together, the two teams bridge research and application. This collaboration ensures that scientific insights lead to tangible impact and that decision makers can benefit from the latest advances in geoinformatics.
Located at one of Europe’s leading academic institutions, our researchers benefit from the rich and collaborative environment of Heidelberg University—the oldest university in Germany and consistently ranked among the top three in the country in international university rankings. HeiGIT and GIScience are both active members of broader interdisciplinary research networks, including the Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR). These affiliations foster scientific exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration, providing postdoctoral researchers with numerous opportunities to connect across domains.
Eligibility and further information
The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships last between 12 and 24 months and are open to applicants of any nationality who:
- Hold a PhD degree at the time of the call deadline
- Have no more than 8 years of research experience after the PhD
- Comply with the mobility rule (not having lived or worked in Germany for more than 12 months in the 36 months before the deadline)
For full eligibility details and application procedures, please consult the official MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships website.
If you have any questions or would like to express interest in applying with us as your host, please contact Prof. Dr. Alexander Zipf at zipf@uni-heidelberg.de.
