ML4Q Fellowships
Fostering independence
An important mission of ML4Q is to provide early career stage researchers in the quantum science and technology field (both experimentalists & theorists) with excellent work environment, space for developing own research ideas and training opportunities. The ML4Q Fellowship program is one of the measures to fulfil this mission.
Excellent postdoctoral researchers who would like to contribute to the scientific goals of the cluster and foster their academic career can receive a fellowship and space in one of the ML4Q groups in Aachen, Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Jülich, Paderborn or Siegen.
Selected fellows will be granted funding to cover their position for 2 years, including consumables and travel expenses. In addition, fellows benefit from various training opportunities and a mentoring program.
How to apply
Applicants should normally have completed their PhD studies no longer than four years ago.
Career breaks or circumstances that may have affected an applicant’s academic career, such as parental leave, care-giving responsibilities, prolonged illness, or other significant personal circumstances, will be taken into account when assessing this period. Applicants may include relevant information in their CV; detailed personal or medical information is not required.
Interested candidates are expected to identify a potential host group within ML4Q and discuss their application with the group prior to submission. The potential host group must be willing to host the applicant. ML4Q will contact the named host group directly to confirm this.
Please note that current members of ML4Q groups, individuals who have left an ML4Q group within the last three years, and applicants whose current or former (co-)supervisor is an ML4Q member are not eligible to apply.
The following documents and information are required when submitting an application:
- Research statement (max. 3 pages, including references)
- Statement outlining connections to the cluster (max. 0.5 page)
- CV (max. 2 pages, without a photo)
- Full list of publications, highlighting the three most important publications and including a brief statement on the applicant’s contribution to each of these three
- Contact details of two referees (name, institution/affiliation, and email address)
- Name of the potential ML4Q host group
Please combine all application documents into a single PDF and submit your application by email to ml4q-office@uni-koeln.de by December 14, 2026. The file should be named Lastname_Firstname_ML4Q_Fellowship.pdf.
Questions regarding the application process can also be sent to Dr. Eva Kanis via the same address.
The stated page limits include all content specified for the respective document. Content exceeding the page limits will not be considered.
Up to two fellowships will be funded centrally by ML4Q. Additional fellowships may be awarded subject to the availability of further funding. The fellowship can start in autumn 2027 at the earliest.
I joined Prof. Yoichi Ando’s group in ML4Q to develop parity read-out technology for Majorana qubits based on charge sensing. As an early career researcher, building my own research profile is essential. The ML4Q fellowship, in this regard, has given me the freedom to work on what I find most interesting while benefiting from a highly collaborative research environment. Overall, I think it is an excellent initiative by the Cluster and a valuable opportunity for young researchers like me.
The ML4Q fellowship has given me the opportunity and freedom to pursue questions regarding the interplay of quantum information, thermalization and statistical physics. I am able to collaborate freely with the cluster’s many world-leading experts in these areas, while retaining full independence in my reserach due to the support this fellowship provides.
As an ML4Q Fellow, I joined the group of Prof. Erwann Bocquillon to investigate single electron excitations in graphene. I am interested in electronic transport in 2D materials and the ML4Q fellowship offers me time and freedom to expand my abilities and knowledge with all the support of the cluster’s infrastructures and close collaborations, while keeping a clear goal toward building my own projects later. In this regard, the ML4Q environment is ideal for a young researcher.
During my PhD at the Weizmann Institute, I worked on topological fractional quantum Hall states, with little to no connection to quantum information or machine learning. The ML4Q Fellowship has enabled me to expand my research into the realm of quantum error correction and neural-network–assisted decoders. Joining forces with the group of Prof. Simon Trebst, I am bridging the gap between my background in topological phases of matter and emerging questions in quantum information, including measurement-based state preparation and measurement-induced phase transitions. The complete intellectual freedom granted to the ML4Q fellows allows me to explore these interdisciplinary directions in depth — an environment where the most promising advances take shape.
I joined the cluster as an ML4Q fellow to work on ultracold molecules as a hardware platform for quantum information technologies. The diverse research environment in ML4Q and the cluster’s position at the intersection of quantum hardware and software is ideal for such interdisciplinary research, and I have been able to meet researchers from Bonn, Cologne, Jülich, and Aachen who are interested in similar problems. I particularly enjoy the close collaboration with the group of Markus Müller, where we explore how to apply the unique features of molecules to address questions in error correction. This gives me the opportunity to quickly enter the field of error correction while taking advantage of my background in atomic and molecular physics, and at the same time I can retain my scientific independence.