Organisation/Company Universidad de Alicante Department Department of IT Languages and Systems Research Field Computer science » Other Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Master Positions Application Deadline 18 Mar 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Madrid) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 37,5 Offer Starting Date 5 Mar 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programme Reference Number PID2024-156263OB-C22 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
Offer Description
Applications are invited by the University of Alicante President to participate in a recruitment process for research staff (contract type: fixed-term contract; job category: pre-doctoral researcher) to collaborate with the project “Human-centred, knowledge-driven NLP to ensure quality, integrity and transparency in a trustworthy digital ecosystem” of the Department of IT Languages and Systems. Reference: I-PI 19-26
Pursuant to the provisions on the regulations governing calls for applications of research staff to cover a contractual research position, approved by the Governing Council of 29 June 2021 (BOUA of 30 June 2021) and with instructions of the University of Alicante Offices of the Registrar and the Comptroller, which establish the mandatory use of electronic means for the submission of applications, documentation, payment of fees, communications, notifications and all other procedures of the selection procedures for the temporary contractual administrative and services staff and research staff and other general applicable regulations, the University of Alicante calls for applications in accordance with the following terms:
First. General terms.
1.1. The purpose of this call is to recruit research staff (job category: pre-doctoral researcher) for the project “Human-centred, knowledge-driven NLP to ensure quality, integrity and transparency in a trustworthy digital ecosystem”.
1.2. The project in which the successful applicant(s) will collaborate, as well as the number of available vacancies and the characteristics of the job role, are set out in the annex I hereto.
1.3. The panel in charge of the recruitment process may decide to create a talent pool including candidates whose applications were unsuccessful but who participated in all the stages of the recruitment process and, where applicable, passed the relevant test. In such a case, the panel may set a minimum score for candidates to be placed in the pool.
The pool will list candidates in descending order of score. Candidates in the pool may be contacted if a successful applicant does not accept the position offered or, after accepting it, is on a temporary leave of absence, resigns or is dismissed. They may also be contacted to cover additional needs of the project, as long as the tasks to be fulfilled are related to the job profile specified in this call for applications.
If candidates are offered a position, they will be contacted in the order listed in the pool.
In accordance with the provisions of the agreement of the Governing Council of 27 January 2022, which approves the University of Alicante 4th Plan for equal opportunities between women and men, and with article 61.2. f) of Valencia Government Law 4/2021, of 16 April, of the Valencian Civil Service it is hereby stated that the percentage distribution in the contractual job vacancies of pre-doctoral researcher for research projects is 49.03% for women and 50.97% for men, so there is no under-representation of either sex in this job category.
Second. Requirements for applicants.
Compliance with the requirements listed below must always refer to the date of expiry of the deadline for the submission of applications and must be maintained until the date of entering into the contract.Applicants must:
2.1. Hold or be in the process of obtaining a former second-cycle undergraduate degree (including engineering and architecture studies) of at least 300 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits, or an undergraduate degree (Spanish MECES level 2 or EQF level 6) plus an official Master’s degree (Spanish MECES level 3 or EQF level 7). Applicants who are not in possession of the degree certificate must provide proof of payment of the diploma issuing fee or submit an academic certificate stating that they have completed all the studies leading to the award of said certificate.
2.2. Have a document (if the required qualification was obtained overseas) confirming that the relevant official approval or statement of comparability has been secured.
In the event of qualifications obtained overseas for which the relevant official approval, statement of comparability or recognition has not been secured by the application deadline, the applicant will be required to present evidence that, prior to entering into contract, they have initiated the official approval, comparability or recognition process. When a statement of comparability is submitted, it must be accompanied by the qualification certificate and the academic transcript on which the statement of comparability is based, in order to determine whether the relevant qualifications are indeed equivalent. In such cases, any supporting documents relating to the qualification that are in a language other than those with official status in the Valencia Region must be accompanied by a sworn translation; otherwise, the applicant may be excluded from the process.
2.3. Meet the academic requirements necessary for admission to the University of Alicante PhD programme in Computer Engineering (Spanish MECES level 4 or EQF level 8). Proof of admission to the doctoral programme must be submitted, at the latest, when entering into the contract.
2.4. Not hold a PhD awarded by a Spanish or foreign university.
2.5.Be a Spanish national or be in one of the situations listed in article 57 of Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October, which approves the revised text of the Act on the Basic Statute of Public Employees (BOE of 31 October). In the case established in point 4 of this article, when entering into the employment contract, the successful applicant must be a legal resident in Spain.
2.6. Have a good command of any of the official languages of the Valencia Region for the performance of the job.
2.7. Be at least 16 years of age and not exceed the maximum compulsory retirement age.
2.8. Possess the physical and mental capacities and aptitudes that are necessary for the performance of the corresponding functions or tasks.
2.9. Not have been dismissed by disciplinary proceedings from the service of any of the Public Administrations or of the constitutional or statutory bodies of the Spanish Autonomous Regions, nor have been totally or specially disqualified for public employment by a court decision, for access to the civil service, or to perform duties similar to those performed by non-tenured staff in public administrations, in which they had been dismissed or disqualified. Nationals of another State must not be in a situation of disqualification or equivalent, nor have been subjected to a disciplinary or equivalent sanction that prevents, under the same terms, access to public employment in the relevant State.
If an applicant, at any point during and before the completion of the recruitment process, no longer meets all the necessary conditions, they will be required to file a request to withdraw from the process. Otherwise, as soon as it is detected that they do not comply with all the requirements, they will be excluded from the process.
Third. Submission of applications.
By submitting their application, candidates confirm that the information provided in the application is true and that they meet all the requirements set out in the call for applications. They also undertake to provide proof that the information contained in the application is true and correct.
Holders of a foreign qualification must provide both the official qualification certificate and the official academic transcript, in order to determine whether the qualification is indeed equivalent to the required qualification and/or the one to be considered for the merit-based assessment.
Any supporting documents submitted in a language other than those with official status in the Valencia Region must be accompanied by a sworn translation. Otherwise, said supporting documents may be excluded or not considered.
Merits for which no valid proof has been provided by the deadline for candidates to correct their applications after publication of the provisional list of accepted and rejected candidates (fourth section of the call) will not be taken into account.
At any point during the process, candidates may be required to present the originals of the submitted documents and, where applicable, the sworn translation of said documents.
Fourth. List of accepted and rejected candidates:
If at any point during the recruitment process the panel becomes aware that a candidate does not meet all the requirements set out herein, and once said candidate has been heard, the panel will propose to the University President that the candidate be excluded from the process. In order to ensure that the appropriate measures are taken, the panel will also specify the inaccurate or false information provided by the candidate in their application. Should the candidate be excluded from the recruitment process, they may file an appeal for the decision to be reviewed by the University President.
Sixth. Two-stage selection system:
Merit-based assessment and personal interview. The interview may be recorded. The score awarded for the interview, which is mandatory, will range from 0 to 2.
Applicants of Spanish nationality must prove their identity by presenting their Spanish ID, passport, driving licence or, where applicable, a document issued by a police station that contains their Spanish ID number. Applicants who are not Spanish nationals must prove their identity by presenting a document issued by the relevant authorities of their country of origin or residence; the document must be a valid proof of identity, age and nationality. Copies or photocopies of said documents are not accepted under any circumstances.
The interview will be suspended if the University of Alicante issues a red weather warning; therefore, candidates are advised to check the UA website for the latest updates on weather warnings. For information purposes, any measures adopted will be published (in advance if possible) in the candidate’s electronic file as well as on the web page of the recruitment process.
The panel may decide to create a talent pool including candidates whose applications were unsuccessful, in accordance with section 1.3 of this call for applications.
ANNEX I
purpose of call i-pI 19-26 and job profile
Project PID2024-156263OB-C22 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the ERDF-EU
This project is carried out in accordance with Order CIN/1025/2022, of 27 October, and its amendments (Order CNU/1459/2023, of 26 de December, and Order CNU/307/2024, of 4 April), which approves the regulatory basis for the award of public funding under various programmes and subprogrammes of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2021-2023, managed by the Spanish State Research Agency, according to the procedure for the accelerated implementation of funding programmes, for the year 2024, targeted at “Knowledge Generation Projects” and pre-doctoral research staff training actions associated with these projects, in the framework of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2024-2027.
1. Project in which the successful applicant will collaborate:
1.1. Name of the project: “Human-centred, knowledge-driven NLP to ensure quality, integrity and transparency in a trustworthy digital ecosystem”.
1.2. Reference: PID2024-156263OB-C22.
1.3. Funding agency: Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and Spanish State Research Agency.
1.4. Co-funding agency:ERDF-EU.
1.5. Dept. / Institute: Department of IT Languages and Systems.
2. Number of vacancies and features of the job vacancy.
2.1. Number of job vacancies: one.
2.2. Job position: pre-doctoral researcher.
2.3. Working hours: 37.5 hours/week in morning/afternoon sessions.
2.4. Remuneration: €2,039.02 gross/monthly during the first year of the contract (each monthly payment includes the amount corresponding to the extra payment for that month).
In any case, the remuneration amounts may not be less than 56% of the salary set for the equivalent categories in the relevant collective bargaining agreements during the first and second year, than 60% during the third year or than 75% during the fourth year; nor may it be less than the minimum interprofessional wage established each year, in accordance with Article 27 of the Recast Version of the Workers’ Statute Law.
2.5. Initial duration of the contract: from the signing of the contract until 31/08/2028.
In any case, the duration of the contract will be linked to the duration of the project and its budgetary availability.
2.6. Tasks to be carried out:
The successful applicant will collaborate in the research project “Human-centred, knowledge-driven NLP to ensure quality, integrity and transparency in a trustworthy digital ecosystem (PID2024-156263OB-C22)”, undertaking doctoral training in the area of Human Language Technologies in cooperation with the University of Alicante Research Group in Language Processing and Information Systems (GPLSI), to pursue a doctoral thesis within the scope of the aforementioned project and carrying out the following research tasks:
* Designing and developing methods and resources for natural language processing (NLP), with a focus on knowledge generation and exploitation techniques and the creation of discriminative and generative language models.
* Designing and executing tasks for the evaluation of results in NLP systems.
* Publishing research results in scientific journals and conferences specialising in NLP.
* Leading research works in the field of NLP.
* Performing any other tasks related to this job position as may arise from the implementation of the project.
Third. Job profile
Preference will be given to those with:
* Use of languages and tools for the development of AI technologies, mainly Python and its specialised libraries (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, Pandas).
* Knowledge of machine and deep learning methods and techniques, including training, adjustment and development of language models and LLMs.
* Generative AI techniques for the development of innovative solutions and functional demonstrators.
* Data analysis, model validation and development of AI prototypes, with a focus on the evaluation and improvement of results.
* Use of environments for collaborative development and version control (Git), applying good programming, documentation and code management practice.
* Undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering, in Artificial Intelligence Engineering, in Physics or in Mathematics (Spanish MECES level 2 or EQF level 6), or any other degree with equivalent content.
* Dual undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering (or another discipline related to computer science) and any other field (Spanish MECES level 2 or EQF level 6).
* Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, in Artificial Intelligence or in Data Science (Spanish MECES level 3 or EQF level 7), or any other official Master’s degree in the field of computer science.
Please note that you must use the University of Alicante's standard CV format https://s.ua.es/es/nSdB for Project-based Research and Technical Staff Recruitment, which is mandatory and is available at the following address on the University's website: https://s.ua.es/es/nlJf It must be attached in the section ‘Modelo currículum’.
Full terms and conditions of this call can be found at the following link (IN SPANISH):
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