项目介绍

2026年4月9日

There is a vacancy for a PhD position at the Department of Information and Media Studies. The position is for a fixed-term period of 4 years, of which 25% will be dedicated to teaching, supervision and administrative tasks at the Department.

About the project/work tasks:

The PhD project will focus on the ethical aspects of Natural Language Processing (NLP), addressing challenges such as bias, fairness, alignment with human values, and safety in current language technologies. As NLP-based systems are increasingly deployed in society, there is a growing need for methods to understand and mitigate the ethical risks that such technologies may raise. 

The project could investigate how ethical issues can emerge from data collection, model training, alignment techniques, or deployment. Possible research directions include measuring and mitigating social and cultural biases, evaluating safety and harm prevention mechanisms, studying value alignment, and developing robust evaluation and mitigation frameworks. Other relevant and related issues can also be proposed by the candidate as topics of investigations. The exact focus can be adapted to the candidate’s interests. The project offers flexibility to pursue multiple sub-projects while contributing to the broader goal of building ethically aware and socially responsible language technologies. 

The candidate will submit a PhD plan within 3 months after the start of the PhD. 

Qualifications and personal qualities:

• The applicant must hold a Norwegian master’s degree or an equivalent foreign master’s degree in a relevant discipline such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computational Linguistics, Language Technology, Computer Science with a specialization in NLP or machine learning, or equivalent. The master’s thesis must be submitted before the application deadline. It is a requirement that the degree must be fulfilled before commencement of the position. The requirement is a grade B or better on the master’s thesis and for the master’s degree in total. See section “About the PhD position” for formal requirements regarding the master’s degree.  
• Good programming skills in Python. 
• Previous experience with neural approaches and particularly generative language models is an advantage. 
• Experience working in high‑performance computing (HPC) environments, and prior experience with post-training, fine-tuning, or training large language models (LLMs) is an advantage, but not a requirement.
• Experience from relevant scientific work (e.g., previous conference and journal publications) is an advantage. 
• Proficiency in both written and oral English is a requirement. 
• Proficiency in both written and oral Norwegian, or any other Scandinavian language, is an advantage, but not a requirement. 
• We seek applicants who can work independently, maintain structure, collaborate effectively, and exhibit enthusiasm for research. Personal qualities and relational skills are highly valued, alongside an assessment of ambitions and potential. 
• The place of work for this position is Bergen, and the work requires that you are physically present at the Department on a daily basis.

In assessing the applications, emphasis is placed on the scholarly or scientific quality of the project and the applicants’ basic professional qualifications. Further emphasis is also placed on strategic considerations, motivation, and the applicant’s personal eligibility.  

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview.  

About the PhD position:

About the PhD position (applies to university PhD positions): The duration of the PhD position is 4 years, of which 25 per cent of the time comprises career development work associated with research, teaching and dissemination of results. The employment period for the successful candidate may be reduced if he or she previously has been employed in a PhD position.

About the PhD training:

As a PhD research fellow, you will take part in the PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences, UiB. The programme corresponds to a period of three years and leads to the PhD degree. To be eligible for admission you must normally have an educational background corresponding to a master’s degree with a scope of 120 ECTS credits, which builds on a bachelor’s degree with a scope of 180 ECTS credits (normally 2 + 3 years), or an integrated master’s degree with a scope of 300 ECTS credits (5 years). Master’s degrees must normally include an independent work of a minimum of 30 ECTS credits. It is expected that the topic of the master’s degree is connected to the academic field to which you are seeking admission.

Project proposal:

A research proposal of 5-8 pages must accompany the application. The proposal should present the topic, the research problem(s) and choice of theory and methods. The proposal should also include a progress plan for the different parts of the project. Admittance to the PhD programme will be based on the research proposal. The faculty has prepared a guide for writing project descriptions.

We can offer:

• Salary as PhD (code 1017) NOK 568 700, – per year. Automatic salary increases for up to 4 years with a 3% annual increase
• A good and professionally challenging working environment
• Enrolment in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Good welfare benefits

Your application must include:

• A project proposal describing which ethical aspect you would like to focus on, and what kind of research questions you would like to explore. The proposal should be between 5 and 8 pages (including references).
• A cover letter (one page) that includes a brief account of your research interests and motivation for applying to the position. 
• A brief summary of your master’s thesis (up to two pages), in addition to the whole thesis. 
• CV. 
• Relevant certificates, transcripts, and diplomas. Transcripts and diplomas should document the completion of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees. 
• It is an advantage (but not a requirement) to include a sample of some code you have written (either as a file or as a GitHub link or similar) that you are proud of, such as a script you wrote for your thesis or an assignment. 
• A list of academic publications/conference presentations (if any). 
• The names and contact information of two reference persons. One of them must be the main advisor for the master’s thesis or equivalent thesis.
• If you have a master’s degree from an institution outside of the Nordic countries, or a 2-year discipline- based master’s degree (or the equivalent) in a subject area other than the one associated with the application, you may later in the application process be asked to submit an overview of the syllabus for the degree you have completed.

The application and appendices with certified translations into English or a Scandinavian language must be uploaded at Jobbnorge following the link on this page marked “Apply for this job”.

Closing date: 07.06.2026. 

Applications submitted without a project description or applications sent as e-mails will not be considered. Only submitted documents will be subjected to an expert assessment.