Do you have a PhD in Computational Linguistics or related? Would you like to develop text mining methodology, and improve the public health research, policy advice and communication of RIVM? Please apply at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU).

Location: AMSTERDAM/BILTHOVEN FTE: 0.8 - 1

Job description

The project you are working on as a postdoctoral researcher, is part of a research project funded by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Our goal is to use text mining methodologies to enable systematic insight in suggestions from citizens and professionals on specific RIVM themes. You work partly at the Social AI research group at VU, and partly at the National Coordination Centre for Communicable Disease Control (LCI) of RIVM. We offer you the opportunity to further develop your research skills, with a rich data infrastructure and the relevant expertise and guidance in the group. You get to apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) in practical use cases of RIVM, including end user evaluations. Every day RIVM receives hundreds of questions, comments and suggestions of citizens and professionals about the various topics that RIVM deals with. These many questions, comments and suggestions have the potential to provide RIVM with relevant societal feedback loops to better adapt its work to societal needs. As a postdoctoral researcher on this project, you set out to develop and validate text mining methodology, both supervised and unsupervised. Your methodologies are applicable to different data sources (including Social Media and internal platforms), themes and user groups (e.g.: citizens and health professionals). The predictions need to be presented in a suitable way to the envisioned end users: researchers, policy makers, medical doctors and communication experts at RIVM. These methods may target attitudes, beliefs, sentiments, needs, suggestions and experiences of professionals and citizens. At the end of the project, a multidisciplinary RIVM team may use them to support and enhance RIVM research, policy advice and communication. We also intend to publish our research results in international peer-reviewed (open access) journals.

Your duties

* doing high-quality application-oriented research and publish this research in international conferences with a focus on NLP * contributing to text mining education for staff members at RIVM * developing (re-)usable text mining code and tools

Requirements

* you hold, or will soon hold, a PhD degree in data science, computer science, artificial intelligence, information retrieval, computational linguistics, or a related field * you have experience with applying Natural Language Processing * you have a strong research potential, preferably evidenced by publications * you have an interest in the application domain, i.e., public health and health communication * you are proactive and a good communicator; creative and engaged * you have the ability to work independently and in a team * you can work together well with project members that have different expertise * you are a fluent speaker / writer of English

What are we offering?

A challenging position in a socially involved organization. On full-time basis the remuneration amounts to a minimum gross monthly salary of €2,960 (scale 10) and a maximum €4,670 (scale 10), depending on your education and experience. The job profile is based on the university job ranking system and is vacant for at least 0.8 FTE. The appointment will initially be for 1 year. After a satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, the contract will be extended for a total duration of 2.5 years Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as:

* a maximum of 41 days of annual leave based on full-time employment * 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus * solid pension scheme (ABP) * contribution to commuting expenses * optional model for designing a personalized benefits package You will have a (physical) workplace both at RIVM (in Bilthoven) and at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

Application

Are you interested in this position? Please apply via https://workingat.vu.nl/ad/postdoctoral-research-position-developing-text-mi... and upload your curriculum vitae and cover letter until 07/12/2022.

Florian Kunneman Assistant Professor at the department of Computer Science | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam AI Master Thesis coordinator Working days: Mo, Tu, Th, Fr Room 11A85 (NU Building) | T: +31.20.59 84452 | M: +31.6.33726175 fkunneman.github.io