Offer Description
We offer an exciting PhD student position at the Universitat de Barcelona within the PhD in Medicine and Translational Research, hosted by the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (BCN-AIM) in collaboration with ISGlobal. The selected researcher will contribute to COMPASS-AI, developing practical, evidence‑based guidance for the safe, fair and effective deployment of trustworthy AI in clinical care. The candidate will help develop and validate deployment guidelines by mapping and comparing ethical, regulatory and clinical frameworks (e.g., EU AI Act, MDR, GDPR, EHDS; WHO; FUTURE‑AI), identifying facilitators and barriers for deployment (e.g., technical integration, workflow fit, governance and trust), and analysing multi‑stakeholder qualitative feedback and translating it into actionable guiding steps. Methods will include literature reviews; qualitative and mixed‑methods research; participatory co‑creation with clinicians, patients, developers and regulators; and synthesis into implementation toolkits, training materials and policy recommendations.
We are thus seeking candidates with an MSc (or equivalent) in a relevant field (e.g., public health, bioethics, health policy, global health, medicine, nursing, anthropology, biomedical/health informatics, digital health) and experience or strong interest in qualitative/mixed‑methods research, digital‑health governance or responsible AI. Candidates must have excellent teamwork and communication skills, be enthusiastic about their research and show creative problem‑solving. The successful candidate is expected to organise their work with minimal supervision, prioritise to meet project deadlines and represent the lab at meetings and consortium events. Given continual collaboration with international partners, advanced English (oral and written) is required.
The research project
COMPASS‑AI is a four‑year EU4Health initiative to make clinical AI safe, fair, and genuinely usable in real healthcare. Building on FUTURE‑AI, the project develops FUTURE‑AI 2.0: a practical, step‑by‑step set of deployment guidelines that translate ethical and regulatory requirements into hospital‑ready processes and tools. The consortium, bringing together clinicians, data scientists, ethicists, regulators, patient representatives, and industry, co‑creates these guidelines through iterative cycles and validates them in clinical pilots across oncology, surgery, and healthcare delivery in remote or resource‑limited settings. Each pilot examines workflow fit, human oversight, safety monitoring, bias and equity checks, and post‑deployment governance, feeding evidence back into the next guideline iteration. The main outputs are a tested implementation toolkit (e.g., governance templates, risk/monitoring plans, change‑control logs, oversight checklists), policy and governance recommendations aligned with EU frameworks, training materials for hospitals and developers, and open, evidence‑based exemplars that enable trustworthy AI adoption across European health systems.
The group
The successful candidate will join the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (www.bcn-aim.org), which is an integral part of the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. It is a young and dynamic research lab, highly active in international projects, and composed of >30 enthusiastic academics, researchers, students and research managers, with expertise in data science, machine/deep learning, biomedical informatics, trustworthy AI, and health‑related applications. The research group has an established track record in coordination and participation in European and international projects (18 projects, > 12 million Euros over the last 5 years) in biomedical data science and medical AI (EuCanImage, euCanSHare, EarlyCause, LongITools, HealthyCloud, RadioVal, DataTools4Heart, Youth‑GEMs, HappyMums, AIMIX, AI4HF, YOUTHreach, DVPS, AIXPERT, AFRICAI‑RI, AIFIX, STAGE).
The institution
The University of Barcelona (UB), founded in 1450, is one of the oldest universities in Spain. It comprises a student body of 84,370 and 4,548 research staff members. With 73 undergraduate programs, 273 graduate programs and 48 doctorate programs, UB is the largest university in Barcelona and Catalonia. The UB is ranked the first Spanish university according to several rankings (QS World University Rankings 2022, Shanghai Ranking 2022). It is particularly interested in fostering international relations and, for many years, has managed an average of 150 European projects per year. The University of Barcelona is part of the prestigious League of European Universities Research (LERU).
Additional Information
A full‑time work contract (37.5 hrs/week). The researcher will have the possibility to participate in teaching activities for professional development (not obligatory, though).
Eligibility criteria
A specific committee will evaluate the applications using the following criteria:
* Grade point average of the academic transcripts from the applicant’s bachelor's or master's degree studies (or 1st and 2nd cycle): up to 5 points out of a total of 10.
* Curricular merits: up to 1 point out of a total of 10 in accordance with the specific criteria listed in Annex 1.
* Suitability for the tasks to be performed within the framework of the research project or research support position to which the successful candidate will be attached: up to 4 points out of a total of 10.
Selection process
The specific committee will agree upon an award proposal and draw up a prioritized shortlist of candidates who have achieved a minimum of five points or declare the call for applications null and void if none of the applicants reach the minimum score.
The award proposal will be published in the UB’s electronic office and must include the total scores of the candidates that have received a total of at least five points.
Application Process
According to the specific requirements and selection criteria, the candidates are expected to provide at least the following documents:
* BSc and MSc academic transcripts
* For studies completed abroad, applicants must submit their equivalent grade point average as per the grading scale for Spanish universities.
The candidate proposed for hiring must accept the job offer within 10 working days from the date of notification of the selection.
Priority will be given to people with disabilities (Law 89/2015 of June 2, reserve of quota 2% in favour of people with disabilities in companies of 50 or more people).
Be aware that the starting date set in this offer is an estimate date. The official starting date will depend on the time necessary for administration to prepare the labour contract and present the necessary documents for the selected candidate to be hired.
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