Lake Zurich at golden hour with the Swiss Alps in the background and trees on the shoreline.

Sweden Rolling — WASP doctoral positions are advertised through the partner universities' vacancy pages throughout the year

WASP PhD Positions (Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program)

WASP is Sweden's largest ever individual research programme — a Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation initiative running to well over SEK 6 billion, aimed at building national capability in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and software. Its doctoral positions are hosted at KTH, Chalmers, Linköping, Lund, Umeå and Uppsala, and are salaried employment contracts on the same Swedish terms as any doctoral post: roughly SEK 34,000 a month gross to start, full social benefits, and no tuition. What distinguishes a WASP position is everything layered on top — a dedicated national graduate school with joint courses and cohort events, funded international research visits, a structured industrial placement, and access to a research network spanning Ericsson, ABB, Saab, Scania, Volvo and AstraZeneca. For Sri Lankan graduates in AI, software engineering, control or robotics, it is among the strongest funded doctoral packages available anywhere in Europe.

WASP — Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (tenable at Swedish universities)

External Organization-funded

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payments

Employment Salary

~SEK 34,000/month (~LKR 1,088,000)

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Graduate School

National Cohort + Funded Courses

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Extras

Industry Placement + International Visit Funded

fact_check Eligibility Criteria

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Master's in a Relevant Discipline

Computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, automatic control, mathematics, data science or a closely related field, with strong results and a research thesis.

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Apply to an Advertised Position

WASP does not run a central intake. Positions are advertised by the host university and department with a defined project and supervisor. Check the WASP website's position list and the vacancy pages at KTH, Chalmers, Linköping, Lund, Umeå and Uppsala.

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Open to All Nationalities

No nationality or residence restriction, and no tuition is charged for doctoral study in Sweden. Non-EU appointees apply for a residence permit for doctoral studies; spouses receive full work rights.

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English Throughout

The graduate school, supervision, courses and thesis are all in English. Swedish is not required. Most positions ask for IELTS 6.5 or equivalent, or a prior degree taught in English.

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Track open WASP positions

The WASP programme site lists currently open doctoral positions across all partner universities. Because each is a separate job advertisement with its own short window, check fortnightly rather than waiting for an annual round.

Build a project-specific application

CV with publications, code repositories and thesis details
Cover letter engaging directly with the advertised research problem
Transcripts, degree certificates and an explanation of the Sri Lankan grading scale
Two academic references

Technical interview

Expect a research-focused interview with the supervisor and group, often including a short presentation of your Master's work and technical questions on methods relevant to the project.

Employment offer and WASP enrolment

The host university issues the employment contract; WASP enrolment follows and brings you into the national graduate school cohort, with funded courses, an industrial placement and support for an international research visit.

Residence permit

Apply to the Swedish Migration Agency for a residence permit for doctoral studies using the employment contract. Allow two to four months from Sri Lanka.

Why WASP?

WASP is the largest privately-funded research programme in Swedish history, created to give Sweden depth in AI, autonomous systems and software. It funds hundreds of doctoral students across six universities, connects them through a shared national graduate school, and links each cohort to Swedish industrial research at Ericsson, ABB, Saab, Scania and Volvo.