Postdoctoral position in ERC project on computational modelling of language in psychosis (TRAD-INV-INDF-2026-04)

Universitat Pompeu Fabra; España; On-site; EUR 28,000 - 42,000; Full time

Job summary

Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain seeks a researcher to contribute to the DELTA-LANG ERC project. You will develop analytical pipelines linking language alterations in psychosis to brain states, emphasizing semantic structure and grammar's role in semantics.

The role values a diverse scientific background and offers collaboration with clinical partners within UPF's computational linguistics and cognitive neuroscience landscape.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in hand at the start date in a relevant field including computational linguistics, computational psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, data science, and artificial intelligence.
• Expertise in computational linguistics / LLMs.
• Some experience with fMRI.
• Experience in modelling language in psychosis and/or other mental disorders.
• Capacity to work in a group and contribute to project aims.

Responsibilities

• Conceptualizing and implementing analytical pipelines that link language alterations in psychosis to brain functional alterations.
• Focus on semantic structure and the role of grammar in shaping the semantic space.
• Collaborate with clinical and computational neuroscience teams.

Skills

LLMs expertise

fMRI experience

Language modelling

Education

PhD in relevant field

Job description

Department of Translation and Language Sciences

Organisation/Company Universitat pompeu fabra Department Department of Translation and Language Sciences Research Field Language sciences Researcher Profile Established Researcher (R3) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 14 Nov 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 37.5 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - ERC Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The position forms part of work package 1 in the ERC Synergy grant “DELTA-LANG – The delta of language” (no. 101118756, 2024-2029). The overall project’s aim is to map clinical fluctuations in symptom states onto language states and to then explore how these language states map onto brain states, with a view to enhance mechanistic understanding. Our ultimate clinical goal is to track and predict transitions between symptom states in psychosis based on language together with fMRI. So far, the project has focussed on linguistic, information-theoretic, and geometric perspectives, using large language models (LLMs). Candidates should familiarize themselves with our recent papers and preprints. You will contribute to our current research priorities and develop a compact independent research line within the above research scheme. We value a diversity of scientific backgrounds in this cross-disciplinary project, which includes perspectives from information theory, statistical physics, and computational semantics. Appointed candidates will benefit from an extensive network of clinical collaborators, the resources of the consortium as a whole, and a rich and diverse local research environment at the UPF, particularly in the areas of computational linguistics and cognitive and computational neuroscience.

Conceptualizing and implementing analytical pipelines that can link language alterations in psychosis to brain functional alterations. The work focuses primarily on semantic structure and the role of grammar in structuring the semantic space.

• Ph.D. in hand at the time of the start of the contract, in a relevant field including computational linguistics, computational psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, data science, and artificial intelligence.
• Expertise in computational linguistics / LLMs.
• Some experience with fMRI.
• Experience in modelling language in psychosis and/or other mental disorders.
• Capacity to work in a group and to contribute to the project aims.

Level Excellent

Research Field Language sciences

Additional Information

Eligibility criteria

• Academic background: 0-20 points
• Professional experience / suitability for the proposed profile: 0-60 points
• Other: 0-20 points

Minimum score to pass the selection process: 50 points.

If necessary, an interview may be conducted.

Additional comments

The duration of this contract is expected to be approximately 6 months, in accordance with the tasks planned within work package 1 of the DELTA-LANG project.