11 Early Stage Research Positions available for NL4XAI project

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Eleven PhD positions are offered within the framework of NL4XAI: Interactive Natural Language Technology for Explainable Artificial Intelligence, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 860621.

NL4XAI is a European Training Network (ETN) project, which will train 11 creative, entrepreneurial and innovative early-stage researchers (ESRs), who will face the challenge of making Artificial Intelligence (AI) self-explanatory and thus contribute to translating knowledge into products and services for economic and social benefit, with the support of Explainable AI (XAI) systems.

The focus of NL4XAI is in the automatic generation of interactive explanations in natural language, just as humans naturally do, and as a complement to visualization tools. As a result, ESRs are expected to leverage the usage of AI models and techniques even by non-expert users.

The NL4XAI consortium is made up of 18 partners and beneficiaries from 6 different European countries (France, Malta, Poland, Spain, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom). The consortium is coordinated by the Research Centre in Intelligent Technologies of the Univ. of Santiago de Compostela (CiTIUS-USC) and the partners correspond to 2 national R&D centres (IIIA-CSIC and CNRS-LORIA), 10 universities (Univ. Aberdeen, TU Delft, Univ. Malta, Utrecht Univ., Univ. Twente, Univ. Lorraine, Univ. Dundee, Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona, Univ. Santiago de Compostela and Warsaw Univ. of Technology) and 6 private companies (Indra, Accenture, Orange, Wizenoze, Arria and Info Support).

Each ESR will work in an individual research project in a different host institution and will participate in academic and inter-sectoral secondments at the premises of other NL4XAI’s members.

We look for outstanding, motivated and team-spirited candidates to carry out a PhD within the NL4XAI ETN and who will get unique international and inter-sectoral training from prominent European researchers (from both academy and industry).

The available positions within the NL4XAI project are the following:

General eligibility criteria:

  • Mobility: the candidate must not have resided or carried out her/his main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the host institution for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date— unless as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention.
  • Research category: the candidate must be — at the date of recruitment — an ‘early stage researcher’ (i.e. in the first four years of his/her research career) and not have a doctoral degree.
  • The candidate must commit to work exclusively for the action
  • The candidate must fulfill the conditions to be admitted in the PhD programme indicated in each job vacancy.

Please check the additional specific requirements of each available position.

Note that female candidates are particularly encouraged to apply.

Required documents:

  • Detailed CV in Europass format (template available in the following link) in English, highlighting the merits that are established as evaluation criteria;
  • Scans of BSc and/or MSc transcripts, with certified translation in English (if the degree qualification is not in English or in the language of the hosting country); 
  • A motivation letter in English, highlighting the consistency between the candidate profile and the chosen ESR position/s for which she/he is applying and describing why you wishes to be an NL4XAI ESR to carry out a PhD;
  • Contact details or recommendation letters of two referees in English or in certified translation;
  • Scanned copy of valid identification document;
  • Proof of excellent command of English (e.g., IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge or equivalent). This is not required in case of native English speakers (i.e., English is your mother tongue).

Please be aware that UoM accepts only the following certificates: IELTS, TOEFL or Cambridge.

In addition, you can add any other documents which you find relevant for the applications such as Master thesis, publications or project reports.

Evaluation criteria:

  • Academic background (up to 40 points)
  • Knowledge and specific achievements (up to 35 points)
  • Personal interview, only for candidates achieving a minimum of 55 points (up to 25 points)

Candidates are encouraged to contact the NL4XAI Project Manager (info@nl4xai.eu) for assistance or for any information related to the application process. When contacting, please indicate the position reference in the subject line.

Please note that you can apply for more than one position. If this is your case, you will have to indicate which ones in the application form in order of preference and discuss your suitability to each in your letter.

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