The DIGITAL FINANCE Pathway to Industry and Academia
Charting the Future of Finance
Welcome to the MSCA Industrial Doctoral Network on Digital Finance!
This EU-funded Industrial Doctoral Network, running from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2027, supports 17 fully funded PhD positions focused on the intersection of finance, data science, and artificial intelligence. Funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the network brings together academic institutions, financial companies, technology providers, and policy organizations to jointly train the next generation of researchers in digital finance.
The network builds on a strong foundation of collaboration. Many of the current partners have successfully worked together in previous EU-funded research projects, including Horizon 2020 initiatives and the COST Action CA19130 Fintech and Artificial Intelligence in Finance. These earlier collaborations established a robust interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral framework, which is now expanded with the involvement of numerous additional companies and institutions from across Europe.
Key thematic areas of the doctoral research projects include:
- The European Financial Data Space
- AI-driven analysis of financial markets
- Explainable and fair AI in finance
- Blockchain infrastructure and innovation
- Sustainability and green finance
Each doctoral candidate participates in a structured training programme comprising:
- Core scientific courses and advanced technical modules
- Transferable skills development
- Extended secondments in industry and non-academic settings (typically 18 months), along with additional placements in regulatory or policy institutions (4 months)
- Technical workshops, research weeks, and annual project meetings
The network is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Joerg R. Osterrieder (University of Twente and Bern Business School) and brings together 13 core beneficiaries and multiple associated partners from academia, industry, and the public sector.
This website offers detailed information about our research objectives, training structure, consortium members. We invite doctoral candidates, researchers, and industry collaborators to explore the programme and engage with our activities.
Warm regards,
Prof. Dr. Joerg R. Osterrieder
Coordinator, MSCA Industrial Doctoral Network on Digital Finance
University of Twente · Bern Business School
https://www.joergosterrieder.com/
MSCA Digital Finance
Learn about our project and its goal
Our Research
Learn about our research topics and individual research projects
MSCA Digital Finance
Learn about our project and its goal
Trainings
Learn about our trainings directed at PhD candidates
Who We Are
Learn about our team of academic and industry experts
Events
Learn about our upcoming networking and training events
We are an Industrial Doctoral Network established within the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) which aims at training highly skilled doctoral candidates in Digital Finance. We bring together a consortium of leading European universities, major international corporations with significant R&D presence, innovative SMEs, renowned research centers, and governmental agencies. Our goal is to foster collaboration and innovation among its diverse members, aiming to advance knowledge, technology and solutions.
Upcoming Events
Mon 16 Mar
Milano
More info
Modern continuous-time portfolio optimization
Fri 27 Mar
Online
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Training Week on Blockchains in Digital Finance
Mon 30 Mar
Bucharest University of Economic Studies
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Mon 11 May
Coimbra
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PhD Training School on Cybersecurity
Mon 08 Jun
Enschede
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Industrial Doctoral School on FinTech
Mon 10 Aug
Reykjavík
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News
New blog series: Responsable AI
We are excited to announce the launch of a new blog series that will publish periodically on the research outputs of Work Package 3 (WP3) within the MSCA DIGITAL Doctoral Network . Responsible AI in Finance is the official blog of WP3 and brings together interdisciplinary research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, financial markets, regulation, and sustainability . As financial institutions increasingly deploy advanced machine learning, deep learning, and rein
3 days ago
Professor Härdle on FinTech, Machine Learning, and the Future of Economics
In an engaging conversation at Fudan University, Professor Wolfgang Härdle reflected on the role of machine learning and data science in...
Aug 28, 2025
Boundaries of Explainable AI in Financial Time Series
Studies on Explainable AI (XAI) have greatly increased in number - but there are issues. In a research seminar at Bern University of...
Jun 5, 2025