Organisation/Company Fundació per a la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Research Field Language sciences » Linguistics Language sciences » Other Researcher Profile Other Profession Positions Bachelor Positions Application Deadline 17 Feb *********:59 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 38,5 Offer Starting Date 14 Apr **** Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?
Horizon Europe – COFUND Reference Number PCI************* Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?
No
Offer Description
We are seeking to recruit a Research Assistant for the TamTAS project (Terminology Aware Machine Translation for Accessible Science) within the GRIAL research group, part of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Social and Cultural Transformations (UOC-TRÀNSIC) at the UOC.
This project addresses the urgent need for accurate and accessible scientific communication by enabling multilingual access to scientific knowledge.
It challenges the dominance of English in scientific dissemination and aims to empower both researchers and the general public to engage with science in their native languages.
To achieve this, we propose a terminology-aware machine translation (MT) framework tailored to scientific texts.
The core technology is based on Large Reasoning Models (LRMs)—an advanced class of Large Language Models (LLMs) that treat translation as a reasoning task.
LRMs incorporate chain-of-thought prompting, self-correction, and document-level understanding, ensuring terminological consistency and coherence across longer texts.
To further improve translation robustness, we will develop a tightly integrated pipeline combining Quality Estimation (QE) and Automatic Post-Editing (APE).
QE models will detect and assess terminology-related errors, guiding APE modules—using reinforcement learning techniques like direct preference optimization—to refine the translations.
Feedback from QE will also be used to improve the LRM itself.
The training of these components will be supported by specialized corpora annotated with terminology errors.
We focus on five languages—English, Spanish, Catalan, Estonian, and Irish—covering both well-resourced and under-resourced contexts, and apply our approach to the Life Sciences domain.
Pilot collaborations with the Centre de Recerca Genòmica (CRG) in Barcelona, the Institute of Family Medicine and Public Health in Tartu, and Conradh na Gaeilge in Ireland will ensure real-world validation and user-driven refinement (both from the scientific and the general public perspective).
Bridging MT, NLP, and scientific expertise, the project will be evaluated using both adapted automatic metrics and human assessments by domain experts and general users.
The final system, validated at TRL 5–6, will significantly enhance the accuracy, inclusivity, and trustworthiness of scientific communication across languages—supporting a more equitable and globally connected research ecosystem.
Responsibilities
Creation and management of monolingual, comparable, and parallel corpora.
Development of terminological databases.
Training and fine-tuning Neural Machine Translation (NMT) systems.
Fine-tuning LLMs for specialized translation tasks.
Python development of NLP tools, specifically for terminology extraction, corpus creation, and data preprocessing.
The successful candidate will be awarded a temporary full-time contract lasting 32 months.
The scheduled start date is 14 April ****.
For work on site, the principal location will be the UOC Campus, at Rambla del Poblenou *******, Barcelona.
At the UOC, we work with an open working model that combines remote working with work on-site, according to organizational needs and the nature of the tasks involved.
About the UOC
A leader in e-learning, our pioneering university is a digital native with general reach and a mandate for public service.
We've been providing accredited, high-quality online education for the last 30 years, and our mission is lifelong development of people's talent.
We conduct research with a transformative approach to generate social and economic impact.
At the UOC, we're not all the same.
And this works very much in our favour.
The differences between who we are and what our experiences and ideas are make us stronger.
In our mission to work with the best talent, we do all we can to ensure equal opportunities, ignoring aspects such as gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or any other physical, personal or social aspect other than merit and abilities.
Likewise, we will assess any reasonable adjustments that candidates require in order to put themselves forward for the position.
Contact us at ****** if, at any stage of the selection process, you need some form of adaptation.
The UOC's recruitment and selection processes are based on the principles of Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment (OTM-R).
Education: University Degree in Linguistics (or related fields such as Translation and Philology) or Computer Science (or related fields).
Specialized coursework or training in Natural Language Processing (NLP) is required.
Specific knowledge: Natural Language Processing; Programming in Python; Use of Linux Terminal.
Languages:High level of English.
Also of interest
Master's degree in Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, or Translation Technologies.
Proficiency in Catalan and/or Spanish.
Proficiency in additional languages.
Experience with ML frameworks (such as Hugging Face, PyTorch, or Scikit-learn).
Languages ENGLISH Level Excellent
Years of Research Experience None
Additional Information
You'll be joining an organization with an open working model that combines teleworking with working on site.
You'll be working in an environment where everyone has equal opportunities and equal access to resources and people, regardless of their location or teleworking choices.
You'll be provided with the computer equipment and ergonomic material you need to work both from home and on site at the UOC.
You'll have training possibilities to continue your professional development.
You'll finish work early on Fridays.
You'll have 24 days of vacation, 9 personal leave days and 4 UOC holidays.
You'll be able to work reduced summer hours (35 hours a week), subject to organizational requirements.
You'll have well-being benefits such as activities to look after your health, a medical service, a physiotherapy service and, if required, assessment and adaptation of your workplace.
Selection process
To take part in the selection process, you must register as a candidate in the Join our team section of our website ( ).
Once you have registered, complete your profile in the candidate section in order to submit your application.
Additional comments
This contract is part of the project PCI*************, funded by MICIU/AEI/********/************ and by the European Union.
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